Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Wissekerke Castle

No, I did not chose it for it's name. It was Sunday, I had no castle to do a post on. I usually at least have a clue which castle I am going to do by Thursday. So I was searching desperately my Ever Faithful List of Castles (Which I am not going to tell you where it is.), under Castles in Belgium. And there was the castle of Wissekerke.

I personally wouldn't be so bold as to call it a castle. But, it is a castle. I do think that it is a beautiful building, though. A very beautiful building, of else I wouldn't do a blog post on it.


The castle of Wissekerke is located in the village of Bazel of Kruibeke municipality in the East Flanders province of Belgium. It was built by Rass Van Borele in 1238. In 1510 the castle was sold to Emperor Carl's counselor, Lieven Van Pottelsberghe. Lieven left the castle to his son, Frans. But Frans died without ever having a son, so the castle went to his mother, who gave it to her brother, Servaas Van Steenlandt. The castle was ditroyed in 1562 by the army of Marnix van Sint-Aldegondon. The restoration of the castle began in 1590. The website did not say by whom.

Over the pasts several centuries, many changes were made on the castle and many new rooms and renovations. Such is the way with castles.


The 23 meter suspension bridge by the castle is one of the oldest surviving wrought iron suspension bridges in Europe. It was designed in 1824 by Jean-Baptiste Vifquain, an engineer from Brussels and has been of value, because of its historical and structural uniqueness. Since 1981, the bridge at Bazel has been a protected historic monument.



Here is the website where I got most of the information:

http://www.belgiancastles.be/wissekerke.html


Not very helpful or informative. But, contrary to common belief, The Internet does not know all and it certainly does not tell all.

Have a wonderful day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does it actually have a moat? It looks like it in the last picture. I agree that it does not really look like a castle--more like a big house. :)

~ A.K. ~