The building and garden of the Oude Pastorij have served as a community centre since 1976 and are located in Essen, one of the northernmost municipalities of Flanders, right on the border with the Netherlands. The park is 1.4 hectares in size and is located in the middle of the village centre of Essen. From the 13th century until 1898, the pastors (witheren van Tongerlo) of Nispen, a neighbouring village in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant and Essen, lived in the rectory house. The building was probably already there before the 13th century and served as a hunting lodge for the lords of Brabant. The rectory could accommodate 28 people and had a chapel, brewery, farm and drawbridge. Since 1976, the Oude Pastorij and its surroundings have been a protected monument and landscape with a long history. First belonging to the abbey of Tongerlo, later privately owned and in 1956 owned by the municipality of Essen. Less than a quarter of the original buildings remain.