The best walks and hikes around Boutersem

Behind Kwabeek Castle stands a huge, beautifully developed multi-stemmed plane tree. With a trunk circumference of approximately 10 meters, it is among the thickest trees in Flanders. The tree is believed to have been planted in 1810, but at that time, not one but five trees were planted in the same planting hole. This is called clustering, and it is a planting technique often used in park landscaping to quickly achieve the effect of thick trees. Inventory of Immovable Heritage: Clustering of five plane trees at Kwabeek Castle, https://id.erfgoed.net/erfgoedobjecten/133263

After the gruesome murder of the last owner, Baroness Thérèse Ernst de Bunswyck, the municipality purchased part of the estate, including the castle, which now serves as Boutersem's town hall. Other lots went to different owners, so the heritage's unity is somewhat lost, with several buildings besides the castle itself. However, there's much more than meets the eye.

The castle's core dates back to 1718, was modified several times during the 19th century, and eclectically renovated after 1922; the castle and its outbuildings are surrounded by a 16.5-hectare park, originally a high courtyard with a watermill and mill pond; a classic 18th-century valley floor site, redeveloped in an early landscape style around 1830-1835; redeveloped around 1900 in a late landscape style; municipally owned since 1980; ice and vegetable cellars, numerous old trees. Inventory of Immovable Heritage: Kwabeek Castle Estate, https://id.erfgoed.net/erfgoedobjecten/41588

After the gruesome murder of the last owner, Baroness Thérèse Ernst de Bunswyck, the municipality purchased part of the estate, including the castle, which now serves as Boutersem's town hall. Other lots went to different owners, so the heritage's unity is somewhat lost, with several buildings besides the castle itself. However, there's much more than meets the eye.

The castle's core dates back to 1718, modified several times during the 19th century, and eclectically renovated after 1922; the castle and its outbuildings are surrounded by a 16.5-hectare park, originally a high courtyard with a watermill and mill pond; a classic 18th-century valley floor site, redeveloped in an early landscape style around 1830-1835; redeveloped around 1900 in a late landscape style; municipally owned since 1980; ice and vegetable cellars, numerous old trees. Inventory of Immovable Heritage: Kwabeek Castle Estate, https://id.erfgoed.net/erfgoedobjecten/41588

The inn appears to be part of the surrounding walls and is clearly part of the estate, so that means history. As is often the case with this type of inn, this is the former forester's cottage. These foresters weren't just responsible for watching over the hunting grounds; they also managed the castle's vegetable and fruit garden. All this and much more, including information about the house's residents, can be read on a somewhat dated but large and well-maintained sign near the inn's parking lot. There's a photo of it, so those who are truly interested can zoom in.

As early as 1505, a bakehouse was mentioned in Kwabeek in a tax register of then-lord of the castle, Jan vander Ee. Over time, the bakehouse fell into ruin. In 1990, a few volunteers tackled the ruins and transformed it into a proper bakehouse with a well-functioning wood-fired oven. This oven was inaugurated at the end of 1990, after which the Kwabeek Bakers' Guild began baking bread there every second Monday evening of the month. Source: A somewhat outdated but very informative sign about all aspects of the former castle grounds near the parking lot of the local café, which itself once served as a forester's lodge.

On the bench, you'll find a QR code that takes you to a Heritage Inventory page with the information below. If you sit on the bench and look up, you won't see a lime tree, but oaks. In windy weather, it's best not to look up too much during this time of year, as the acorns are falling. The historic lime tree is on the other side of the intersection. And this is what the QR code on the bench, and therefore the Heritage Inventory, says: "At the intersection of three unpaved field roads, Aarschotsestraat, Molensteenstraat, and Velpestraat, stands an imposing lime tree. This intersection is already present on the Ferraris' 18th-century Cabinet Map. On the topographic maps of 1904 and 1939, an 'Arbre' (a small tree) is mentioned at the intersection. At the end of the 20th century, a wayside cross is indicated here on the topographic map." Inventory of Immovable Heritage: Crossroads Lime Tree, https://id.erfgoed.net/erfgoedobjecten/307548