Kasteel Rijvissche

En un regard

Le château en bref

Rijvissche Castle stands at Zwijnaarde, on the outskirts of Ghent, in a park surrounded by partly preserved moats. A former moated castle, heavily fortified as part of Ghent's defensive belt, it takes its name from the Rijvissche family, who held it in fief from St Peter's Abbey in Ghent during the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 16th century it belonged to the Van der Sickelen family; in 1564 Joris Rockelfing inherited it through marriage, and his coat of arms still adorns the north wing. Around the middle of the 18th century the estate passed to the Penneman-De Graeve family, and in the 19th century it served mainly as a country residence. After the First World War, the architect Amand Janssen restored the castle and added a winter garden; Count René Goethals de Mude de Nieuwland acquired it in 1975. The building preserves construction layers from the 13th to the 20th century: a medieval gateway flanked by small brick turrets, a double defensive wall, a neoclassical east wing from the late 18th century, and a kitchen with Delftware tiles. The castle, its moats and its surroundings are protected as heritage under Flemish legislation. A privately owned, inhabited property, it has seen its outbuildings converted into a centre for seminars and meetings.