Castle of Cleerbeek

Tielt-Winge, Belgium, Belgium

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The Castle of Cleerbeek (also spelled Kleerbeek and known as Kasteel van Troostemberg) is a historic castle and estate in the village of Houwaart, part of the municipality of Tielt‑Winge in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, situated south of Houwaart at Kasteeldreef 4‑8, and is one of the most notable neoclassical rural buildings in the Hageland region.

The estate originally consisted of a castle‑like building, a semi‑closed farm complex and a watermill on the Molenbeek (a branch of the Winge river), and from at least the 15th century it included a feudal court house and a rural domain called the “Roeselberg Bosschen” and the “Crebrugge Bosschen”, forming a large landholding with forests and agricultural land. 

In 1795 the property came into the hands of the noble family De Troostembergh after the French Revolution, and the old feudal court building was converted into a private “huis van plaisantie” (country pleasure house), while from 1822 to 1865 the formal garden was transformed into an English‑style landscape park, and around 1890 most of the old farm was demolished, with one wing being preserved and converted into a coach house, and in 1907 the main building was refurbished and enlarged in a neoclassical style by the architect Theo Van Dormael, a collaborator of Joris Helleputte, giving the castle its present appearance.

The castle has remained in the hands of the De Troostembergh family ever since: Charles de Troostembergh received the title of baron in 1956, and in 1991 he gifted the estate to his three sons, who extensively renovated the buildings, the park and the ornamental and kitchen gardens, care for the monumental trees (including valuable yew trees) and restored the mill, and the castle is still privately owned and inhabited by Amaury de Troostembergh and his wife Sophie, who have made the renovation and upkeep of the castle.

Its gardens their main life work, and since the early 2010s the building has again been thoroughly renovated (2010‑2011), while the surrounding 50‑hectare estate includes a large wooded area named the “De Troostembergh” forest and the watermill, which is still a historic element of the site, but the castle itself is not open as a public museum or regular tourist attraction and can only be admired from the Kasteeldreef and the nearby walking routes in the Hageland countryside.