Kasteel Van Huldenberg

Huldenberg, Belgium, Belgium

---

Kasteel van Huldenberg is a historic country castle in the village of Huldenberg in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, situated to the west of the town and surrounded by a large castle park, with a complex history that began in the 15th century as a fortified medieval fortress with a square plan, corner towers and broad moats.

Shortly after 1490, Jan van Houthem built a fortified castle with an inner courtyard; at the end of the 17th century it was transformed into a typical French‑style castle with a formal French garden, straight avenues and square ponds, but in 1705 it was damaged during the reconquest of the southern Netherlands from the French, and in the 18th century it was largely demolished.

Around 1811 a new villa in Empire style was built on its foundations, which burnt down in 1848 and was then rebuilt in neoclassical style by the Baudequin de Peuthy family. In the 19th century the estate became notable for innovative horticulture: the castle’s greenhouses were used by gardener Felix Sohie to develop grape farming under glass, and from 1861 to 1863 he even cultivated pigeons there, a fact commemorated by a bronze plaque with his portrait at the entrance to the building.