Claeys-Bouüaert Castle

Castle Claeys-Bouüaert is a castle in Mariakerke near Ghent and owned by the city. It was built between 1890 and 1892 for Edmond Bracq-Hurraux, designed by Antwerp architect Joseph Schadde. The castle is located at Kasteeldreef 2-6. The moated water castle is situated in a wooded estate. The estate itself has a feudal origin. The shape of the moats suggests a kind of Frankish "motte" that likely first belonged to the "lords of the lordship of Mariakerke," Raas of Gavere, and later the family Van Vaernewijck, and then changed owners several more times. Regarding the precise history, one is in the dark. The current avenues leading to the castle already appear on the map of Benthuys from 1729 and are mentioned as the "mine lord Pennemans avenue." In 1770, the castle was owned by the Ghent cloth merchant Ferdinand J. de Coninck. The castle was demolished and rebuilt in 1869-1870 by sugar trader Pierre-Charles Bracq-Grenier. His son, trader and senator Edmond Bracq-Huraux, moved to the estate in 1877, had the renovated castle demolished again in 1888-1889, and started building the current castle in 1890. The site for the new water castle was sold in 1892 due to financial difficulties, and the castle was completed under the last family of private owners, the Claeys-Bouüaert family of den Peereboom. They lived in the castle until 1971. The park with the surrounding grounds was shortly thereafter purchased by the then municipality of Mariakerke. The castle is a solid structure made of brick and hard stone built in neo-Flemish Renaissance style. To the left of the entrance are the castle farm, gardener's house, and the stables in a similar style, but dating from 1879.

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