Kasteel Van Battenbroek

Mechelen, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel Van Battenbroek is a historic castle in Walem, a village of Mechelen in Antwerp province, Belgium, first mentioned as a castle in 1220 and possibly one of the four 13th-century fortified bases of the Berthout family along with Nekkerspoel, Rumst and Ruisbroek.

The present main building is a neoclassical mansion said to have been erected around 1830, with a 1907 addition of a neo-Gothic chapel and a peristyle, and later 20th-century alterations by architect Eugeen Welch that reused material from the 1958 Brussels World Expo, while the gatehouse is much older, dating to the 13th or 14th century and built of brick and sandstone with a round-arched gate and visible chain holes from an old drawbridge.

The castle and its gatehouse are situated on a raised island within a rectangular moat that separates the residential part from the lower farmyard, and the whole estate has been protected as a built heritage object and part of a protected cultural-historical landscape, although visits to the interior are not generally allowed as it is private property.

Today the site is still in private use as a residence, but it is also a sought-after venue for exclusive events such as weddings with tents in the garden and other celebrations, and legend even claims that Napoleon Bonaparte once stayed there, adding to the castle’s reputation as a discreet yet historically rich landmark between Antwerp and Brussels.