Kasteel Jongenbos, castle in Vliermaalroot, Belgium
Kasteel Jongenbos is a three-story neoclassical castle built around 1848 with a white facade and gray stone details at the corners. The main building originally had a U-shape and was expanded in the 1880s to fill the courtyard, surrounded by a 20-hectare park with old trees, winding paths, and a pond.
The estate developed on land that had been a farm since at least 1380, surrounded by the large Spissen Bosch forest. The current castle was built around 1848 by Willem Joseph Gerard Van der Meer, a wealthy man from Tongeren, and later passed through family marriages to the Claes and De Favereau de Fraipont families.
The name Jongenbos refers to the forest surrounding the estate, meaning Young Forest in Dutch. The castle and its outbuildings show how wealthy families organized their homes and lands in the 1800s, with separate areas for living, horses, and farm work.
The castle and buildings are visible from outside but not regularly open to visitors, so check accessibility beforehand. The adjoining Jongenbos Forest covering about 100 hectares is open to the public and offers good walking paths through the woods and around the pond.
The pond in front of the castle was originally created by digging for clay used to make bricks for the castle walls themselves. This link between building materials and landscape shaping is still visible today in the depth and contours of the water.
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