Kasteel Van Stevoort

Hasselt, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel van Stevoort is a former water‑fortified castle in the village of Stevoort, part of the municipality of Hasselt in Limburg, Belgium, located at Hasseltse Dreef 115 close to the Kleine Herk river and today known as the “Mariaburcht” because it has been the main building of a secondary mixed vocational school since 1922.

The site probably already had a castle in the 11th century, and over the centuries it was owned by the lords of Klein Stevoort, the Salm‑de Rougrave family, the De Groote family and finally the De Libotton family, who in the early 18th century largely rebuilt and enlarged the complex; the present residential wing was built in 1769 by Nicolaus Joseph De Libotton in Louis XV style, with a square east‑south corner tower dating from the 16th century, a north‑east corner tower added in 1705, service buildings in the same style, and an interior still showing this elegant rococo‑late‑Baroque style in the mirror hall, the Chinese salon, the chapel and the staircase.

Originally the castle was set in a large, star‑shaped park called the Sterrebos, but road construction, the expansion of the school and residential development have removed most of this setting, leaving only fragments of the former park and the nearby Herkenrodebos and Zusterkloosterbos, while the Herkenrodebos and Kasteel van Stevoort together form a protected landscape‑ecological area with valuable spring flora and old woodland relics.