Castle of Bets

Near the border with Halen was the seigneury of Elsmeren, a name that refers to a space moored or enclosed with alder bushes. Elsmeren was a wooded area. The owners of the Hof ter Elsmeren had a hunting warande, several forests and a fishing right on the Gete, all held in fief from the Duke of Brabant. Until the fifteenth century, this seigneury was owned by a family that derived its name from the court: van der Elsmeren. The oldest known gentlemen are Arnoud, Henric, Elisabeth, Wouter and Jan van der Elsmeren. In the middle of the fifteenth century, the fief was bought by Dierick van Halle, in 1599 by François Baillet, lord of Neerlinter, the same one who had acquired the ducal lordship over Geetbets. One of his descendants, Jacques van de Ven, had the Old Court of Elsmeren demolished around 1667 in order to build a new castle on the same site, the Castle of Betz, which still exists today. The exterior of the 17th-century core was embellished at the end of the 19th century and during the interwar period. Between 1923 and 1927, Baron F. de Ryckman de Betz had major repairs and renovations made with neo-baroque aspects.

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