Mariahove Castle: A Neoclassical Estate in Belgium
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Belgian, Dutch, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Mariahove Castle is an estate in Bellem, Belgium. Its present castle was built in 1815 and rebuilt between 1855 and 1860, when it acquired its current neoclassical appearance, drawing on ancient Greek and Roman forms.
The Rijm and Montmorency estate
The estate’s history reaches back to the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ghent Rijm family held Bellem as a lordship, a territory under a lord’s authority. Maria-Anna Rijm (1707–1739), the family’s only daughter and heir and its last member to bear the Rijm name, brought the estate to her husband in 1736. He was Lodewijk-Frans, Prince de Montmorency, a member of the French noble house. An earlier castle on the estate is dated to 1650.
Nineteenth-century ownership
In 1808, Princess Louisa de Montmorency sold the Bellem estate to Jacob Lieven van Caneghem, a Ghent textile magnate. The de Kerchove family and, later, the Crombrugghe de Picquendaele family lived at the castle. Members of both families served as mayors of Bellem during the periods 1878–1921 and 1939–1970. The de Kerchove family remained at the castle until 1965.
Religious use and later ownership
In 1965 the estate passed to the Federation of Religious Sisters of the Diocese of Ghent. It was named Mariahove and used for reflection and study. In 2017, Baron Amaury de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele, a grandson of former Bellem mayor Baron Guy de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele, bought the castle. That October, the last two sisters left the estate and returned to their community’s principal convent in Opbrakel. The castle is now a private residence.
In 1996, the park and pond were protected as monuments, and the broader setting, including the castle and Bellem church, became a village conservation area. The castle is also protected as a monument.
Remains
The estate lies southeast of Bellem’s village center, along Mariahovelaan, the road toward Hansbeke. The castle stands within grounds that include a park and pond.
The castle
Architect Bruno Renard (1781–1861) designed the present castle. Its neoclassical appearance took shape around 1860, drawing on forms associated with ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
The park and Le Pavillon
A villa called Le Pavillon was built in the grounds during the 1960s by the last family to live at the castle, who then moved into it. Baroness Anne-Marie de Kerchove d’Exaerde died at the villa on 17 May 2006, aged 104.
