Singelberg: The Motte Castle of Beveren
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- County of Flanders, Duchy of Burgundy
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page11 sections
History
Singelberg is the surviving artificial hill of Singelberg Castle in Beveren, Belgium, a medieval fortification that served as the political centre of the lordship of Beveren. The castle developed from a twelfth-century motte castle, a fortified residence built on a raised artificial mound, and later became a moated complex whose military importance extended beyond the local lordship.
Foundation of the lordship and early castle
The Land of Beveren became an independent lordship after 1100. Its first known lord, Diederik, appears in records from 1120, when he was formally granted rights and revenues in and around Beveren. His ancestry remains uncertain. A proposed connection with the Amstel family, based on similar coats of arms, is doubtful, and he was once confused with another Diederik, lord of Beveren aan de IJzer. He was probably a local free man who had already gained recognition as a leader.
Diederik probably continued to live with his family in a farmstead, but he also had a fortified mound built in the marshes north of the village. The original motte was about six metres high and carried a small timber-framed tower. It functioned as a wartime stronghold rather than simply as a permanent aristocratic residence.
A twentieth-century interpretation suggested that the counts of Flanders had built many ninth-century ringwork castles near coasts and rivers to shelter people and possessions from threats such as Viking raids. The oldest archaeological traces at Singelberg instead date to the beginning of the twelfth century.
Conflict and enlargement
Diederik’s successor, Jordaan, opposed Count Diederik of Alsace after the count refused to grant him the neighbouring Waasgouw. When the count sent troops to Beveren in 1158, Jordaan and his followers took refuge in Singelberg Castle. They surrendered, and the tower was burned.
Jordaan later rebuilt the tower. A renewed dispute over the Waasgouw continued under his successor, Diederik II. Flemish troops captured the castle again in 1194, although the extent of the resulting damage is uncertain. Diederik II subsequently enlarged the mound on its northern side. The earlier tower was then positioned relatively far south on the expanded summit, while earth removed during the work created an especially broad surrounding ditch.
During the thirteenth century, the small wooden refuge tower was replaced by a larger residential tower. The new building allowed the lord to live at the castle permanently and reflected the development of Singelberg from a wartime refuge into the principal residence of the lordship.
Succession, administration, and the Burgundian period
A succession dispute arose around 1310 between Jan of Beveren, brother of the deceased lady of the lordship, and her daughter Isabella of Rumigny. Backed by the count of Flanders, Jan arrived with soldiers on 11 September 1310. After a short siege, Isabella’s supporters transferred control of Singelberg. Because Jan had no children, the lordship later passed to Isabella’s sons, Mathias and Hugo of Lorraine.
Hugo sold the lordship to Count Louis of Crécy in 1335. A steward then administered it for the count. Under Count Louis of Male, this official was Nicolaas, or Klaas, Vijd, who also served as peat master, an official supervising the extraction and commercial distribution of peat. Peat revenues made Vijd extremely wealthy, and he may have arranged for brick buildings to be added around the residential tower.
Count Louis of Male later stationed a small garrison and artillery at Singelberg to prevent the Ghent Revolt of 1379 to 1385, an uprising centred in Ghent, from spreading to his possessions in Antwerp and Mechelen. The castle also provided a base for controlling shipping on the Scheldt because the forts near Antwerp had not yet been built.
After Louis of Male was succeeded by Philip the Bold in 1384, an audit of the comital estates found that Vijd had illegally enriched himself over many years. He was fined and forced to leave Beveren. With his wife, Amelberga Van der Elst, he moved to Ghent, where they prospered as merchants in peat, cloth, and iron. In 1397 they bought the lordship of Pamel-Ledeberg in Brabant and entered the nobility. Their son, Joos Vijd, later commissioned the Ghent Altarpiece.
Philip the Bold strengthened the military infrastructure of his territories after the Ghent Revolt and during the Hundred Years’ War. At Singelberg, a major building campaign took place from 1395 to 1402. The castle’s importance shifted from the residential tower to the surrounding buildings, producing the form of a more extensive moated stronghold.
Late medieval residence and sixteenth-century conflict
During the fifteenth century, members of the Burgundy and Burgundy-Beveren families embellished the castle. Singelberg first appears in a depiction on the 1468 Figurative Map of the Scheldt, which shows a gatehouse and a tower. A sixteenth-century description of Beveren includes a sketch in which the inner courtyard can be recognized.
By the sixteenth century, the castle was no longer occupied permanently. Its lords also maintained residences in their other lordships, although Adolf of Burgundy died at Singelberg in 1540. Beveren was sold to Philip III of Croÿ in 1577, after which he and his descendants lived there even less frequently.
Following the Calvinist seizure of power in Brabant and Flanders in 1577 and 1578, Singelberg came under the control of the States, the representative political bodies of the Netherlands during the conflict with Spanish rule. The castle surrendered to the Duke of Parma in 1583. Philip of Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde, then one of Antwerp’s burgomasters, temporarily protected the city by flooding the polders around Beveren.
In 1584, the Duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese, returned to the region and established his headquarters at Singelberg. From there he coordinated the siege of Antwerp in 1584 and 1585. In August 1585, Marnix of Saint-Aldegonde came to Singelberg to sign Antwerp’s surrender, known as the Act of Reconciliation.
Destruction and archaeological investigation
The presence of foreign soldiers damaged the castle. Renovation was considered too expensive for an estate located relatively far from the principal residences of its lords. Singelberg was first described as a ruin in 1629, and the castle was demolished in 1652 so that its building materials could be sold. Much of the material was reused to enlarge churches in Beveren, Kallo, and Verrebroek. The mound was largely excavated, allowing the broad surrounding ditch to be filled.
The National Excavation Service excavated Singelberg and the land outside the ditch from 1974 to 1977 under the direction of Johnny De Meulemeester. The work investigated both the castle mound and the former outer court, or lower court, where a castle farm had stood. A royal decree of 22 October 1975 protected the surroundings as a cultural-historic landscape, a heritage area recognizing the historical relationship between landscape and human activity.
In 2020, rabbit burrowing and natural erosion threatened to expose tower foundations again. Working with the local game-management unit, rabbits were driven from their burrows, part of the population was culled, and a low fence was installed at the foot of the hill.
Remains
Singelberg survives as the artificial mound left after the castle was demolished, the mound was partly removed, and the surrounding moat was filled. Its earliest form was a roughly six-metre-high motte in marshland north of the village. The mound was later enlarged to the north, creating a wider summit and an extra-wide surrounding ditch. Subsequent construction raised the sides again to support buildings around the residential tower.
Motte and castle buildings
Residential tower
The thirteenth-century residential tower measured 14 by 15 metres in plan. Its foundations and first storey were built from Tournai stone, while the upper part may still have used timber framing. Later buildings around it may have been made of brick. Their deep foundations rested on piles, which helped prevent the structures from sinking into the wet ground of the moat.
Inner courtyard and gatehouse
By the later fourteenth century, Singelberg had the form of a moated castle. During the building campaign of 1395 to 1402, the residential tower was demolished and the complex was reorganized around a polygonal inner courtyard. On the side facing the bridge, a tall gatehouse closed access to the courtyard. The gatehouse and a separate tower appear on the 1468 Figurative Map of the Scheldt, while a sixteenth-century sketch preserves the outline of the courtyard.
The northern wing collapsed into the moat in 1526 after a dyke breach in the neighbouring polders sent fast-flowing water through the area. An image from 1602 shows the castle without replacement buildings in the position of the collapsed wing.
Outer court and archaeological remains
The area beyond the moat formed the forecourt, or lower court, of the castle. It included a castle farm that supported the main stronghold. The excavations of 1974 to 1977 covered both this outer area and the artificial hill, connecting the surviving mound with the wider arrangement of the former castle complex.
The present hill therefore represents only the remaining earthwork of Singelberg Castle. Archaeological investigation has also traced the effects of its enlargement, later construction, demolition, and moat infilling. Rabbit burrows and erosion in 2020 endangered the renewed exposure of tower foundations, prompting measures to protect the surviving remains.
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