En un regard
Le château en bref
Lalaing Castle, at Zandbergen (Geraardsbergen), was the seat of the lords of Zandbergen; its other name, "Hof van Lier", recalls the title of Governor of Lier held by a former owner. First mentioned in 1429, it belonged to the Lalaing family from the sixteenth century onwards. A fortified castle probably stood on the site from the twelfth century, but the history of its construction remains largely unknown. According to E. Poumon, cited in the inventory, it was destroyed by the Gueux in the sixteenth century, then by the Duke of Marlborough in 1708, and restored in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The architect Paul Saintenoy restored and adapted it in 1911–1913. Almost rectangular in plan and two storeys high, it is flanked by two round corner towers. The main façade has a recessed central section in the Louis XV style (mid-eighteenth century), while the north-east wing, eight bays wide, dates from 1613. It is surrounded by a square moat with two fixed bridges and preceded by U-shaped outbuildings of brick and sandstone.