Country House Michiels

Two storeys and a spacious basement country house from 1903, in eclectic style. Striking is the rich and well-kept detail finish, which is especially evident in the generously used bluestone and the graceful forging of platform, terrace and roof crowns. The same well-kept finish also applies to the historic interior (remarkably well preserved). The villa garden concept is still clearly recognizable.

The country house with castle allures is accessible from the Rozenstraat via the garden with a loop-shaped access road. The floor plan can be reduced to a U-shape with two pavilion-shaped extensions on the left and right and a round and rectangular corner tower. The whole is built in a combination of bluestone and glazed white brick with a natural slate roofing. Above the basement, designed as a slightly chamfered plinth, entirely in bluestone where the service areas are housed is the two-level living area openwork with large cross windows with hard stone frame and double relief system. The overhanging entrance is situated in the south façade. A wide hard stone staircase flanked by walls leads to a rectangular, tiled platform with a basket-arched window door flanked by two windows. The platform with wrought iron balustrade encased between circular hard stone pillars is covered with an originally glazed (now corrugated iron) awning on wrought iron braces. The entrance will have an extra accent in the form of a leaning corner turret (service staircase) with four narrow round-arched windows and a conical roof. Two registers of large cross windows and four basket-arched openings including two window doors determine the tight rear façade ordinance. The whole is covered by a complex, natural slate roof on profiled wooden braces with beautifully detailed dormers, various fireplace elements and wrought iron ridge and top crowns. As mentioned earlier, the eastern side façade, also open with cross windows, is dominated by a partly built-in square tower.

On the western plot boundary is a service building, originally perhaps intended as a residence for caretaker or gardener. The hill in the northwest corner of the garden is a shelter, which was probably built in the late 1930s with a view to the coming war.

The garden has a simple structure. A few copies of the original tall planting that was intended to frame the view of the villa remain. The large loop at the north or rear of the villa runs through dense park that originally framed a downhill vista with a pond as the end point. About twenty trees remain of the original planting in this section. Due to the construction of a 'reflection centre' and the levelling works that preceded it, the vista and the plantings were largely destroyed.

Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/200088

Rudy Wuyts