Schoten Castle is a castle in the municipality of Schoten. The first mention of the Hof van Schoten as a farm dates from 1232. The building was bought by the municipal council of Schoten in 1950 and in 1955 it was converted into a cultural center. The Castle is located in the park of Schoten and is surrounded by a moat. A falcon tower and a large barn, named the Riddershoeve after the last inhabitants, are also part of the Castle. Schoten Castle has a rather striking resemblance to the smaller Bouvigne Castle in Breda. The seigniory of Breda used to be under the authority of the Lords of Schoten from 1167 to 1268. The flags of Schoten and Breda are identical. At the time of the lords of Schoten, the De Boeverie estate may already have been a medieval property. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a flooded mansion was established there, which was owned by the Van Brecht family from Breda. After the construction of the current castle started in 1548, the final renovation started in 1611, giving the castle its current shape.
The court of Schoten was already mentioned as a farm in 1232. At that time, it was probably more of a farm than a castle. The current castle, which changed owners several times (all owners from the beginning of the 16th century are known), was the seat of the lords of Schoten from 1564 until the French Revolution.
The first castle, probably from the first half of the 16th century (?), of which the square layout with drainage, the substructure of walls and towers and the Valkentoren were preserved, was destroyed in 1542 by Maarten van Rossem. Around 1550, Jan van Crombach, mayor of Antwerp, started the construction of the current castle (see the typical brick and sandstone architecture of the outer walls and towers). After 1564, Melchior Schets had the ‘court of plaisantie’ transformed into the administrative residence of the lordship of Schoten. Around 1750, J.B. Cornelissen de Weynsbroeck to remodel the front and rear facades (see the lighter brick, the absence of bacon layers and the decoration of the main entrance and balcony), to cover the towers with tent roofs and to demolish the outbuildings with the exception of the Valkentoren.
The old beech avenue with the moated castle at the end is still recognizable as a structure as on the Ferraris cabinet map (1770-1778). On this map, the moated castle is surrounded by vegetable gardens, a small star forest and a few detached buildings within an almost rectangular moat. Park forests and avenues surround the castle. On the Vandermaelen map (1846-1854), the structure of the castle domain is clearly recognizable.
The neo-Gothic chapel at the bottom of the northwest tower dates from around 1900. On September 7, 1972, the west wing burned down. Restoration and restoration works of the entire castle were carried out in 1974-76 under the direction of architect Jos Gabriëls.
Since 1950, the domain has been municipal property; in 1955, it was set up as a cultural centre with a public park of 30 hectares and 5 hectares of sports facilities. The remaining 25 hectares were reserved for residential construction, mainly villa construction.
Translated by Google •
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