Cellen Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Cellen Castle (De Cellen estate), in Oostkamp near Bruges, is a neo-Renaissance château built in 1873–1874 to designs by Jozef Schadde for Louis-Charles de Bie de Westvoorde; the stone on the façade dates the laying of the first stone to 5 March 1874. It replaced a Neoclassical residence from around 1800, itself derived from buildings of the second half of the 18th century. Seven bays wide and two storeys high, it is built of orange brick with natural stone details under a slate mansard roof, with a central projecting section, an arcaded gallery on the ground floor and a tower-like volume at the north-east. The estate includes stables, a farm, a brick chapel (around 1888–1889) and a park with a pond containing two islands, an orangery, a boathouse, an ice house and a kitchen garden. Sold in 1917 to Pierre-Octave van der Plancke, it was cut in two in 1956 by the E40 motorway. Acquired around 2010–2011 by a group of entrepreneurs, it was restored and then converted: the château now houses offices and apartments, and the outbuildings contain company offices.