Hof te Melis in Lippelo, Puurs-Sint-Amands, traces its roots to a farm known as “Melisheim” in 1448 that was held as a fief of the Grimbergen lords and passed through several noble families over the centuries.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries it served military roles, briefly housing Louis XIV’s troops and later suffering wartime damage, including shelling in 1914 that destroyed much of its medieval fabric. Rebuilt in 1920 in a Neo-Flemish Renaissance style, the current L-shaped castle stands behind a moat with a forecourt and retains historic outbuildings reflecting its farmstead origins.

During World War II King Leopold III used the estate as his headquarters in the 1940 campaign, and today the privately owned property remains visible from the surrounding Lippelobos woodland, where its landscaped grounds and surviving moats evoke both its medieval beginnings and 20th-century revival.