Castle Domain of Spiere

* Jaquetbosstraat nos. 50-52. Castle. Protected as a monument and the surrounding park as a landscape by Royal Decree of 08/09/1971. One of the most important 18th-century castles in West Flanders. Constructed around 1750 by Baron Bruno del Fosse et d'Espierres. Around 1700, his father, Nicolas del Fosse, purchased the Lordship of the Nederhof of Spiere, and a few years later, around 1720, Emperor Charles VI granted him and his descendants the right to bear the title of baron. In 1767, the Opperhof of Spiere also came into the possession of the family. A long gravel path, flanked by two rows of beech trees, leads to the castle. The street and courtyard are enclosed by blue stone posts topped with iron lion heads connected by iron chains. Along the avenue, a neo-Gothic chapel from the last quarter of the 19th century. Brick construction on a rectangular floor plan. Art slate gable roof. Gable marked by an open truss resting on corbels. Blue stone pointed arch portal with slender columns. Side facades marked by buttresses. Plastered and painted interior. Ribbed vault with ribs. Cement tile floor. Neo-Gothic blue stone altar with a painted Madonna statue.

Imposing castle on a U-shaped floor plan with typical symmetrical construction. Main building and side wings enclose the paved courtyard. Main volume constructed in brick and blue stone. Double house of nine bays and two stories under a slate gable roof. Three bays wide central risalit of Tournai stone crowned by a pediment with coat of arms (natural stone from Lezenne) of the client Bruno del Fosse and his wife Thérèse de Sourdeau and baron's crown. Vertical facade division by the corner pilasters and pilasters of the central part. A platform leads to the centrally located arched portal. Plastered rear facade marked by a three-sided extension. Alternating arched, round-arched, and segment-arched windows. Perpendicular side wings of one story under slate gable roof. Whitened facades rhythmically divided by arches and pilasters on a natural stone base. The side wings extend into two volumes of two stories under a kinked gable roof. The gable facade, side of the access avenue, is more elaborately worked and is rhythmically divided by four pilasters supporting the cornice. Crowning triangular pediment. Well-preserved interior.

The castle is located in a park bounded to the east by the Spierebeek. The park was reportedly designed by Le Nôtre, but since he had been deceased for ten years at the time of its design, the design could possibly be attributed to one of his students. 18th-century landscape garden with very varied landscape views. Park with lawns and beautiful oaks, beeches, and weeping beeches. U-shaped pond to the northeast, bordering the Grote Spierebeek. DEPARTMENT ROHM WEST FLANDERS, cell Monuments and Landscapes, archive no. W/00527. DEPARTMENT ROHM WEST FLANDERS, photo archive, photo dated July 1950. CORNILLY J., Monumental West Flanders. Protected monuments and landscapes in the province of West Flanders. Part I: Arrondissements Ieper, Kortrijk, Roeselare, Tielt, Brugge, 2001, p. 213. GENICOT L., Castles and manors, in The Great Castle Book of Belgium, Brussels, 1976, p. 252.

Onroerend Erfgoed Vlaanderen