Kasteel Van Kruishoutem

Belgium, Belgium

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Kruishoutem Castle, also called Kasteel van Aaishove or Château de Kruishoutem, is a 17th-century Renaissance castle in the village of Kruishoutem in East Flanders, Belgium, now part of the municipality of Kruisem.

The site originally had an 11th-century castle and a 13th-century water fortress with a chapel, but these were destroyed during the religious wars of the 16th century, and the current symmetrical brick-and-sandstone building with four corner towers and surrounding moats was rebuilt between 1629 and 1634 by the family de Jauche de Mastaing.

The castle and its grounds are situated in a large English-style landscape park with a large pond and smaller pools, separated from the main buildings by a gracht, and include surviving service buildings such as stables and a neerhof on the opposite side of Kasteelstraat. The property was altered in the 1930s under architect Valentin Vaerwyck and has been protected both as a monument and as a landscape since 10 December 1973, but it remains privately owned and cannot be visited from inside the grounds.

Historically, the castle was the seat of the lordship of Aaishove, first mentioned in 1227, later raised to a barony in 1645 and to a county in 1670, and it passed through several noble families including van Gavere, van Looz, de Rochefort, van Steenhuize, Desmanet de Biesme, and finally the Piers de Raveschoot family.