Castle of Wilder

The former advantaged fief Wilre depended on Heverlee and had changing feudal lords in the course of the Middle Ages. In 1629 it became part of the Cruyckenburg family, which kept it until the end of the ancien régime.
Mention of a castle in the second half of the 14th century; destruction by the Spanish troops in 1578. In 1629, Wilre is described as a spacious domain that contained, among other things, a newly founded castle, a water mill that had also been rebuilt, the so-called Cammen mill and a farm ravaged by fire.
An engraving by Harrewyn, circa 1690, included in the work of J. Le Roy, gives us an idea of the vanished, partly moated and walled complex. Marked gate in a checkered frame with imaginative pediment crowning in the middle of the main wall flanked by two corner towers. Apparently L-shaped castle, implanted at the back of the official square; square tower with playfully constricted and pear-spired crown in the armpit; right wing elaborated as a succession of three bell gables above an open gallery on the square side; Their perpendicular gable roofs are incorporated into the higher snouted roof of this wing (ordinary frame façade on the garden side). The current, rather simple castle in late classicist style was erected in 1823. It is planted in a spacious park with numerous poplars.
The beautiful Wilderdreef, built in 1687 by Count de Cruyckenburg, connects the Wilder Castle with the now defunct castle of Ruisbeek.

https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/dibe/relict/39855

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