Blankaart Castle

Iepersteenweg no. 54-58. So-called "Blankaart Castle", cf. current staff map, located in a spacious surrounding approx. 10 ha castle park. The entrance to the domain is formed by a cobbled horseshoe-shaped drive in front of the castle, bordered on the left with red beech trees. The current park is included in the nature reserve "De Blankaart", which in addition to the park also includes the so-called Blankaart pond (approx. 67 ha) and a number of hay meadows. Ca. 1561-1571: on the Large Map of the Brugse Vrije by Pieter Pourbus, an elongated irregular blue spot can be seen at this area. This spot may indicate a pond or at least a floodable area that is the result of years of peat extraction dating back at least to the 13th century. 1860-1870: Baron Gustaaf de Coninck de Merckem had a particularly rich eclectic castle built on his newly acquired domain de Blankaart by architect Joseph Schadde (Antwerp). It is an L-shaped volume of five bays and two storeys with two semicircular towers at the corners and an extension at the back with a neo-Gothic chapel and a higher ascending polygonal tower. At the same time as the construction of the castle, a fairly hermetic castle park is also being laid out in English landscape style with, among other things, horse stables on the street side, a coach house, a gardener's house, a walled vegetable garden and greenhouses. At the end of the 19th century, the Blankaart pond, together with the further expansion of the park forest, was deepened and provided with an artificial island and a duck cage. In the castle park, a fishing pond and an ice cellar are also being built. In this domain, sight axes were worked out, including over the front pond with arch bridge. Already around 1900, the surroundings of the Blankaart were known as an exceptional nature reserve with high botanical and ornithological value because of the extensive reed beds and floating edges. 1914-1918: due to its close location to the front line, the castle was destroyed during the First World War to such an extent that only the façade remains. The park forest is also badly damaged. 1925-1929: the castle is rebuilt in a smaller and more sober version by architect J. Gunst (Ostend) The general view of the castle with its two round corner towers, the chapel volume and the polygonal tower is respected. The park itself is no longer being redeveloped in its original state, so a number of sight axes disappear. 1940-1944: during the Second World War, the roof of the castle is damaged. The conical spires of the two round towers are no longer being restored. 1978: the Blankaart domain becomes a nature reserve. Eclectic castle of the 1920s on roughly rectangular floor plan. Volume of three wide bays and two storeys on basement under slate hipped roof with iron frost ridge and high chimneys. Flanked on either side by semicircular corner towers with cantilevered gutter moulding on consoles, but without conical spires (cf. supra). Red brick construction in combination with the use of white natural stone, including for the plinth, the vertical rhythm ring by means of extended natural stone risalites with crowning dormers, the continuous cornice and decorative elements. Pronounced midrisalite with fan-shaped staircase in bluestone. Central round arch door on the extreme sides vertically rhythmed by the superposition of two ringed and composite three-quarter columns in bluestone and above them two fluted pilasters with a round arch in between. Linked roof windows in composite natural stone gable with the coat of arms of the Coninck de Merckem. Other bays rhythmed by natural stone three-lights flanked by fluted pilasters with composite capitals and emblems of agriculture (harvest) and fishing carved on the parapets. Ditto, but more sober asymmetrical rear façade with round arch door in extended natural stone risalite with linked pilasters and crowning spout façade. To the northwest, polygonal openwork stair tower with cantilevered superstructure on natural stone consoles with round-arched gallows holes and octagonal spire. To the south-west, shortened corner with perpendicular implantation of a lower chapel under slate gable roof with a three-sided chancel closure with cut corner buttresses. More or less symmetrically arranged interior: central vestibule with continuous corridor with memorial plaque of the founding of the first castle on the right and a staircase with oak staircase on the left. Other rooms with largely preserved interior decoration: oak panelling, panel doors, parquet floors, fireplace bosoms and stucco ceilings. Chapel with simple interior with wooden pointed barrel vault and three abstract stained glass windows from 1959 by Michel Martens (Bruges), cf. Signed. Furthermore, in the park: wrought iron arch bridge, preserved ice cellar, as well as remnants of former sight axes, including at the level of the so-called castle meadows. To the west adjacent to the Blankaart pond: exceptional duck cage, formerly used for catching ducks. By means of a dog, the ducks were driven into an ever-narrowing catch pipe that was covered at the top by chicken wire. HOUWEN P., De Blankaart and its history, in De Belgische Natuur- en Vogelreservaten, 25ste Bulletin, 1977, p. 32-34.KESTELOOT E., Geologie en gegeography van de Blankaart, in De Belgische Natuur- en Vogelreservaten, 25ste Bulletin, 1977, p. 35-40.MEUL V., Joseph Schadde, academic and historicizing architect in the second half of the 19th century, in Monuments and Sites, Jg. 13, no. 6, 1994, p. 8-61. PRIEM V., Castles and country houses in the westhoek, Tweede Deel, Ieper, 1998, p. 26-33. VANDENBUSSCHE M., De Blankaart a natural history monument in our polder landscape, Diksmuide, 1991. (Thesis tourist guide).

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