Ooidonk Castle

Ooidonk stands in a loop of the Leie west of Ghent, rebuilt in the 1590s after the earlier castle was burned, and its style is unusual for Flanders: a square brick and sandstone block around a court, moated, with corner towers carrying bulbous onion domes and stepped gables, a Spanish-influenced manner from the period when the southern Netherlands were under Habsburg rule. It has been in the same family since 1864 and is still lived in, so the interior is shown as a furnished house with portraits, tapestries and period rooms rather than as a museum. The park around it runs down to the river with beech avenues and an English landscape layout, and the grounds are open more often than the house.

History

Ooidonk is mentioned in 1230, and a fortress was first built here to defend Ghent and guard the Leie, owned by Jean de Fosseux, lord of Nevele; the people of Ghent destroyed it in 1491 in their revolt against Maximilian I. Its owner Philippe de Montmorency, Count of Hornes, was beheaded with the Count of Egmont in Brussels in 1568, and Ghent Calvinists destroyed the undefended castle in 1579, after which the Antwerp merchant Martin della Faille rebuilt it in Renaissance and Hispano-Flemish style. Henri t'Kint de Roodenbeke, later President of the Senate, bought it in 1864 and restored it, his descendants still live there, and it was protected as a monument in 1944 (Wikipedia, Ooidonk Castle).

The main sights

• Onion-domed corner towers - the Spanish-influenced silhouette.
• A furnished family house - rooms shown as they are lived in.
• The moat and river loop - the castle surrounded by water on all sides.
• Beech avenues in the park - the landscape grounds running to the Leie.

When to go

April to September; the castle interior opens on Sunday afternoons in season and the park more widely. Two hours. Check opening before travelling since the hours are narrow.

Before you go

The interior opens only on limited afternoons, mostly Sundays in season, so most visitors see the exterior and the park. It is a private home and parts are closed. Public transport is poor; a bike from Ghent along the Leie is the pleasant way.

Nearby

Deinze is west; Ghent lies east along the Leie.

Key facts