Kasteeldomein Zellaer

Bonheiden, Belgium, Belgium

---

Kasteeldomein Zellaer is a historic castle estate and public park located just north of the centre of Bonheiden in the Antwerp province of Belgium, managed jointly by the municipality and the Kempens Landschap foundation.

The estate probably originated in the 13th century as a feudal water castle, with early records mentioning Arnold van Zellaer, a wealthy canon of Saint Rumbold’s, and later owners including several noble families, high clergy, burgomasters of Mechelen and Bonheiden, merchants, counts and a baron. 

The next major building phase took place in the second half of the 19th century, when baron Gustaaf Eugenius Leo Maria Gislainus de Vrière commissioned between 1885 and 1892 a neo‑Gothic “water castle” in the romantic style of the period, deliberately designed to resemble a 15th‑century Loire castle with its own ring ditch, drawbridge, crenellations and arrow slits.

In the later 20th century the castle was used as a diocesan retreat centre, but in 2017 the municipality of Bonheiden acquired part of the estate while Kempens Landschap took over the whole 18.5‑hectare domain on a 54‑year lease, with the aim of restoring and opening it to the public for recreation and tourism.