Castle Rochendael

Sint-Truiden, Belgium, Belgium

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Castle Rochendael (Kasteel Rochendaal) is a former 19th‑century mansion in Bevingen, a hamlet of Sint‑Truiden in Limburg province, Belgium, built in 1881 by Jean‑Henri‑Paul Ulens, a local lawyer who later became mayor of Sint‑Truiden, in a neoclassical style with three storeys and a distinctive four‑storey turret.

The estate was later owned by notary and mayor Paul Cartuyvels and his wife until 1940, and during the Second World War it was occupied by the German Luftwaffe as part of the nearby Fliegerdorf airfield, serving as accommodation for officers including the captain nicknamed the “Night Hunter,” and after the war it passed to the Belgian Air Force, which used it as an officers’ home and training centre known as “Building 22”.

Following the closure of the military site in 1996, the castle became abandoned, fell into ruin and was heavily damaged by squatters and theft, and on 13 September 2017 it was destroyed by a fire that left only the shell of the building. The 16‑hectare domain surrounding the castle has been planned for redevelopment as a residential area with 300 houses and a large park including ponds and walkways, while the ruins of the castle itself might be preserved and integrated into this new neighbourhood, but there is currently no fully restored, open‑to‑the‑public “Castle Rochendael,” only a historic site with a tragic end and a future urban redevelopment.