Elewijt Castle, Medieval castle in Elewijt, Belgium

Elewijt Castle, also called Het Steen or the Rubens Castle, stands in Elewijt in the municipality of Zemst, Belgium. Its central block has a steep dark slate roof and a corner tower with decorative brick gables, above an arched gateway reached by a short stone bridge with a dark metal railing over a moat. Flanking wings of brick and pale stone have rows of rectangular windows with pale stone surrounds.

The castle was built in 1304 by the knights of Wilre, on the site of an earlier wooden fortification from the 11th century. In 1635, Peter Paul Rubens bought it and had it redesigned in the Flemish Renaissance style.

Locals call Het Steen the Rubens Castle, and the painter's name is inseparable from the place. Rubens bought the estate in May 1635 for 93,000 guilders, along with the noble title Lord of Steen, and used it as a summer residence about two hours by carriage from Antwerp. The castle appears in his late landscapes, among them The Rainbow Landscape (1636) and A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (1636).

The castle is privately owned and not open to visitors at the moment. It is worth checking for updates before planning a trip, as public access may be considered in the future.

The castle sits at the exact centre of an imaginary circle drawn through the churches of Weerde, Elewijt, Eppegem and Houtem. Rubens painted it repeatedly in his late landscapes, including A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (National Gallery, 1636) and The Rainbow Landscape (Wallace Collection, 1636).