Jardin public du moulin de Cassel, Historical urban park in Cassel, France

Jardin public du moulin de Cassel is an urban park situated at the highest point of the Flanders Mountains, offering wide views across the surrounding landscape. A restored mill building and maintained walking paths invite visitors to wander and explore.

The site was once home to Castellum Menapiorum, a Roman fortress built to monitor the surrounding territory and control this elevated position. This strategic location remained important throughout several centuries.

The garden takes its name from the Casteel Meulen, the castle mill, not from a miller. The mill stands on the western part of the former castle, where the Grey Tower of the Count and the governor's lodging also stood. The eastern part, the Menapians' quarter, held the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre and the canons' houses.

The park occupies the summit of Cassel hill at 176 metres, reached on foot from the town centre; the climb is short but steady. Paths lead past the mill, the 1873 monument to the three battles, the 1904 alpine ramp and the orientation tables. The Gallo-Roman wall fragments called "la grotte" lie below the mill.

The park keeps a beech listed as remarkable, planted in the 19th century, and the site also preserves the crypt of the former Saint-Pierre collegiate church, founded in 1076 by Robert the Frisian after his victory over the French. He brought back from Jerusalem a piece of the chain that had held Saint Peter and placed part of it in that crypt, where the relic was venerated until the Revolution.