Kasteel Boterlaerhof

En un regard

Le château en bref

Boterlaarhof is a small moated château in Deurne, in the Antwerp urban area. In the 16th century the site was a farm owned by Cornelis van Ekeren, and a brewery was later established there. In 1626 the jonker Herman Dassa bought the property and converted it into a *lusthof*, a pleasure house surrounded by water. At the beginning of the 18th century, the moat was linked to the Herentalsevaart. A fire destroyed the château in 1907, and it was immediately rebuilt in a neo-traditional style: a rectangular plan on two storeys, a hipped slate roof with dormers, a former stair tower integrated on the south side, and a curved oriel with a balcony on the west side. An early 20th-century brick service building houses a dwelling, a storage shed and stables, and an 18th-century rococo gateway in small granite has been moved to the access avenue. The construction of the motorway cut the estate off from its former avenue, and the moat was filled in. A further fire affected the property in June 2015. The château is protected as architectural heritage and is now used as an events venue.