Arenberg Castle

Leuven, Belgium, Belgium

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Arenberg Castle (Kasteel van Arenberg / Château d'Arenberg) is a Flemish Renaissance château in Heverlee, just south of Leuven in Belgium, set in a large park and now owned by KU Leuven.

The site originally held a 12th‑century medieval fortress of the Lords of Heverlee, which was sold in 1445 to the Picardy family of Croÿ; under William II of Croÿ the medieval castle was gradually replaced by the current building, started in the early 16th century and later enriched with neo‑Gothic alterations in the 19th century.

In 1612, after the last Croÿ duke died childless, the castle passed to the Dukes of Arenberg, who lived there and developed close links with the university until the First World War; during the war, as the duke was German, the Belgian state seized the domain in 1919, and since 1921 it has belonged to the Catholic University of Leuven. 

The castle today forms the heart of KU Leuven’s Sciences & Technology campus, housing the Faculty of Engineering, lecture rooms and studios for the Department of Architecture, the Post‑Graduate Centre Human Settlements, and the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, while its richly decorated salons still reflect its former aristocratic character.