Raeren Castle

Raeren, Belgium, Belgium

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Raeren Castle (locally Burg Raeren, French: Château de Raeren) is a water‑fortified medieval castle in the town of Raeren, in the Liège province of the German‑speaking Community of Belgium, situated at the confluence of the Iter and Periol rivers which feed its surrounding moat.

The castle is first mentioned in 1474 but its core dates back to the mid‑14th century, when a square tower house was built on the site of an earlier iron‑ore foundry; over the following centuries it was repeatedly rebuilt and enlarged, notably in the 16th century when a new residential wing, additional towers, a ring wall and farm buildings were added, and later owners such as the Schwartzenberg and De Nuys‑Von der Gracht families also influenced its appearance.

Since 1959 the municipality of Raeren has been partly owner of the castle, and in 1963 it became the home of the Pottery Museum, which displays more than 2,000 ceramic objects, including a large collection of historic Raeren stoneware (Rheinische Steingut) that was once produced on a major scale and exported all over Europe and beyond, giving the museum the status of European Cultural Heritage.