Kasteel Lagendal

Lummen, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel Lagendal in Lummen (province of Limburg, Belgium) is a large neoclassical country house built in 1850 as a hunting pavilion for the wealthy Hasselt distiller Paul Jacobs-Stellingwerff, and its name comes from its location on the lowest point of the municipality in the Demer valley.

The building is designed in a vernacular late classical style, with a symmetrical main block and wings, and it stands within a park that was originally fully surrounded by a moat and earthen ramparts, most of which still survive and are partly filled with water. The estate was originally a church-owned property that was bought at the end of the 18th century by Jan Jacobs and his wife Maria Barbara Pottie.

The Jacobs family was very rich and owned several jenever (gin) distilleries, and their descendants later used the castle as a residence. In the 20th century, the castle was renamed Kasteel Saint-Paul and from 1965 until 2005 it housed an upscale French restaurant, making it well known in the region as a fine-dining destination rather than as a museum.

In 2005 the property was sold to the Verbeeck family from Tessenderlo, who undertook a major renovation of the castle and its park, restoring parts of the garden in a formal style with a round pond and clipped hedges alongside areas in a more natural landscape style with gentle slopes, round rides, and tree groups.