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.