En un regard
Le château en bref
Kasteel Doeveren is a small pleasure residence from the late 18th century, north-west of Waardamme (Oostkamp). It lies very close to the municipal boundary with Loppem (Zedelgem), so its former outbuildings, including a stable wing now in ruins, belong to the territory of Loppem (Rijselsestraat 63). The former estate is included in the Doeveren natural site.
The site is already shown on the Ferraris cabinet map (1770–1778). The place name Doeveren first appears in writing in 1799; the Flemish inventory interprets it as ‘on the edge of a pond’. The estate then appears on the early cadastral plan (around 1835) and in the Vandermaelen atlas (1846–1854). In 1856 a sale brought it into the hands of Louis de Thibault de Boesinghe of Bruges; a new outbuilding was erected on the Loppem side around 1880. By inheritance, the property passed in 1922 to the Arents de Beerteghem family, then, around the mid-20th century, to the Janssens de Bisthoven family. At the end of the 20th century, the inventory records a sale to the Bruges tourism service, followed by a major renovation. The property has since changed hands: the regional broadcaster Focus-WTV reported that it was put up for sale by a curator, through the auction house Troostwijk, to settle the debts of a former owner convicted of tax fraud, with an offer of around €500,000 for a plot of nearly three hectares.
The isolated residence has five bays over two storeys, under a hipped roof of renewed tiles. The façades, painted white, rest on a sandstone plinth; the ground floor has a rectangular door with a fanlight and rectangular windows, while the upper floor retains round-arched openings characteristic of the late 18th century. To the south extends a garden, formerly accessible from the street through an ornamental cast-iron gate that still survives. The current entrance is through a renewed metal gate between two brick piers topped with vases, opening onto a recently paved drive.
The property has been listed as architectural heritage ‘vastgesteld’ in Flanders since 14 May 2024, after an earlier listing valid from 2009 to 2024. No reliable public source currently specifies its present owner or use.
