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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.
The castles in Germany that I have seen pictures of are mostly, not all, but mostly, either to plain or to disneyprincess, i.e., I've never been too nuts about any of them. Lichtenstein Castle in no exception. It is disneyprincess, but I like it fairly well despite that.
Lichtenstein ("light colored stone") Castle is located in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. There has been a castle on this site since 1200. The first was destroyed in 1311 during the Reichskriegs war and again by the city-state of Reutlingen in 1381. It was not rebuilt and fell into ruin.
King Frederick I of Württemberg built a hunting lodge there in 1802. By 1837 the land was owned by the king's nephew, Duke Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg. Now, Wilhelm was inspired by the fairytale novel Lichtenstein, written by Wilhelm Hauff, to rebuild the castle in 1840-1842. The Neo-Gothic castle was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.
Today the castle is still owned by the Dukes of Urach, but is open to visitors. The castle contains a large collection of historic weapons and armor.
I rather like the way the little castle seems to have just been carved out of the crag on which it sits. The lower rooms of the castle actually were carved directly into the rock, but the rest weren't. The tower was built more recently than the rest of the castle. I think it looks like it doesn't really match.
It does look like a lovely place, though, and I should like very much to see it.
