En un regard
Le château en bref
Roborst was the seat of the lordship of Borst, linked to a castral motte of the 11th–12th centuries, of which some remains survive. The lordship belonged to the Vaernewyck family for ten generations, then passed to the Corteville, d'Ideghem, Glymes de Hollebeke and Gouffart de Felenne families, before falling to the Van De Woestyne family: Jean-Baptiste Van De Woestyne acquired the castle in 1736. The ‘castle of seven towers’, mentioned in 1498, was destroyed in 1792. The present building dates from 1799 and was commissioned by Marie-Charlotte Van De Woestyne, wife of the burgrave Vilain XIIII. It is a neoclassical pavilion which, according to the inventory, was inspired by the Parisian folly ‘La Bagatelle’, attributed to F.J. Bélanger, and bears the motto ‘parva sed apta’ on its frieze. Sold in 1823 to Thérèse Huysman d'Annecroix and then to several owners, it was acquired in 1902 by A. Iweins d'Eeckhoutte, who added around 1905 an extra storey, a mansard storey and a double staircase, as well as two lateral wings. The park was redesigned in the English style at the end of the 19th century; the orangery built in 1919 was demolished in 1994.