Kasteel Margapaviljoen

Machelen, Belgium, Belgium

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The Kasteel Margapaviljoen is the remaining 15th‑century gatehouse of a former medieval water castle in Diegem, a village of the municipality of Machelen in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, located on Kerktorenstraat 31 and set in a public municipal park with a pond and walking paths.

Only this sandstone gate building, with two round corner towers topped with lead‑covered spires, a decorated archway with relief arch, cruciform windows and masonry frames, and three storeys crowned by slate spire roofs, still stands; the rest of the medieval castle and its enclosing walls have been lost, leaving only a few square castle‑style towers at the corner of Kerktorenstraat and Vander Aastraat.

The name “Margapaviljoen” comes from the last inhabitant of the castle, a woman called “Marga,” and the building was officially protected as a monument in 1939; in 1953 it was acquired by the municipality of Machelen, which from 1968 used it as a cultural and leisure centre with reception rooms, meeting halls and spaces for exhibitions and art events, and since 2023 the ground floor has been converted into a crèche called “Paviljoen” for up to 18 babies and toddlers, while the upper rooms continue to serve as cultural and event spaces.