Kasteel De Kapelhof

Lanaken, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel De Kapelhof in Lanaken (province of Limburg, Belgium) is a historic estate and former manorial farm that developed around an old chapel called “van de kapel” in the small hamlet of Ophoven, near the village of Maastricht on the border with the Netherlands.

The domain originated as the “laathof van de kapel,” first mentioned around 1400 as the property of Herman van der Capellen, who inherited both the courtyard and the chapel, and from the 16th century it was held by the family de Rhoe before being bought in 1705 by the Kreuzherren (Cross Brothers) of Maastricht, who also restored and enlarged the chapel.

The chapel and farm formed the core of Ophoven, and the chapel itself already existed before 1400, serving as a significant local place of worship with an attached priest and a miraculous image of Our Lady that, according to legend, floated ashore in the Meuse during high water.

During the French Revolutionary period the estate was confiscated and sold, and in 1836 it was purchased by the Lenders–Derix family, who had already been tenants there since 1705; from then on the place was known as “Kapelhof,” and the buildings evolved into a grouped, 18th‑ and 19th‑century farm complex.