Kasteel Nieuwenhoven

Sint-Truiden, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel Nieuwenhoven is a historic castle and estate in the northern part of Sint‑Truiden, to the east of the village of Nieuwerkerken in Limburg, Belgium, standing at the edge of the large provincial domain Nieuwenhoven and still surrounded by a park that largely preserves the structure of an 18th‑century English landscape garden.

From the late 13th century until the French Revolution, the castle was the summer residence and “pleasure house” (spelhof) of the abbots of the great Sint‑Trudo Abbey in Sint‑Truiden, initially a simple fortified farm that was strengthened in 1329 and repeatedly rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries, with the existing farm buildings dating mainly from the 17th century while the castle itself was transformed multiple times, notably by abbot Jozef van Herck in the 18th century.

After 1795 the property was sold as former church land and passed into private hands, where it was inhabited by noble families such as the Whettnalls (who in 1861 rebuilt the castle in English neo‑Tudor style) and later the de Moffarts family, until in 2004 the castle was sold and subsequently divided into several private apartments and a publicly accessible activity centre, with guided tours, exhibitions, workshops on permaculture and cultural themes, and a bicycle café and bar called Bistro‑Bar Nieuwenhoven on the grounds.