Domain Breivelde

Zottegem, Belgium, Belgium

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The Domain of Breivelde (Domein Breivelde) is a protected castle estate and landscape park in Grotenberge, a village within the town of Zottegem in East Flanders, Belgium.

Created at the end of the 19th century in an English-style landscape manner, the site is built on a gently sloping terrain formed by two valley heads and a small valley, where natural sources feed a continuous chain of ten ponds, a cascade, and a fountain. The central building is Breivelde Castle, a Neo-Renaissance manor constructed in 1904 by Philippe Plancqaert van Exen van Beauvechain, replacing an earlier 1871 mansion built by industrialist August De Rouck.

The park is famous for its “imitation river bend,” which mirrors the castle in its waters and is sometimes described as a mirror pond, and it contains around thirty different tree species, including exotic trees such as swamp cypress, dawn tree, atlas cedar, sequoia, and tulip tree, along with spring flowers like wood anemone. Since 1971 the domain has been owned by the municipality and is open to the public, and since 1982 both the landscape and the castle have been officially protected as heritage sites.

The estate also includes a children’s play forest called “De Zotte Jungle,” newer woodland extensions such as Breiveldebos and Vogelzangbos, and a range of walking and sports routes, while the castle’s ice cellar is used as a habitat by bats. From 1977 to 1996 the castle housed the Museum of Folklore, and today it mainly functions as a cultural monument with a tavern or restaurant on its terrace, offering visitors a place to rest while looking out over the mirror pond.