Kasteel Ter Lucht

Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel Ter Lucht is a historic castle and estate in the municipality of Sint‑Andries, part of the city of Bruges in West Flanders, Belgium, set in a large park along Koestraat near the old Bruges–Oostende railway line and the Meetkerke marshes.

The lordship of Ter Lucht was first mentioned in 1577 and already shown on Pieter Pourbus’s map of the Brugse Vrije, with a castle built in 1642 by Andries de la Coste and a small chapel, Onze‑Lieve‑Vrouw van ’t Boompje, added nearby in 1664, and the whole domain is still visible on the Ferraris map of the 1770s. 

In 1885 the castle was almost completely rebuilt in Flemish Renaissance style by the Ghent architect under the direction of knight de Formanoir de la Cazerie, incorporating the old central tower as the only remaining part of the earlier 17th‑century structure, while the moat was removed and the estate expanded with a lower farm (neerhof), horse stables at the end of the 19th century and a vegetable garden with a brick wall and fruit trees.

After de Formanoir de la Cazerie’s son, the castle passed to the van Caloen de Basseghem family, who have owned it since 1954/1958, and today the building is a protected monument and a private residence that can be admired from the outside, while the surrounding park in landscape style, with lawns, avenues of larch and rododendrons, a serpentine pond with an arched bridge, a berceau, statues and metal gateposts, is partially accessible to the public as a quiet green space near Bruges’ western outskirts.