Adress: Rue de Moriensart 10, Moriensart, Belgium.
Moriensart Castle, locally known as Château-ferme de Moriensart, lies near the village of Céroux-Mousty, in the province of Brabant in the Wallonia region in Belgium.
The Romanesque keep of Moriensart Castle was probably built between 1216 and 1239 by a Arnold Morel de Limal. He was a knight, was mentioned several times in documents pertaining to the Duke of Brabant and was bailiff of Nivelles from 1221 until 1229. In that time the castle was called 'Morialsart'.
Renier II, son of Arnold, is quoted in 1245 as a vassal of Godefroid de Rixensart, probably his uncle. Renier V de Morialsart participated in the Battle of Worringen in 1288, under the banner of Walhain.
The descendants of this family have successively owned Moriensart Castle until 1380, when Arnold de Morialsart mortgaged the castle in 1380, to a Gilles Vanderporten de Windeke. From the latter the castle, by now called Moriensart, transferred to an Arnold van den Bossche in 1387. The Van den Bossche family owned it until 1440, when it went to a Louis Pinnock. In 1450 it went to Lybrecht van Meldert.
In 1511 Moriensart Castle was bought by a Martin de Ferry. His family owned it until 1569, when it was sold to the Le Vasseur family.
In 1657 the castle went, through marriage, to the Coloma family. It is they who crown the square keep with a Gothic pyramid-shaped roof decorated with 3 gabled dormers and 4 polygonal corner towers of brick and limestone. In the 17th century the castle consisted of the keep and some outbuildings, forming an open courtyard. These outbuildings were destroyed in a fire but rebuilt at the end of the 18th century.
In 1789 Moriensart Castle came into the possession of the Van der Dilft family, whose descendants still own the castle. In the 19th century the outbuildings were enlarged giving the castle its present appearance, that of a square castle farm with a keep in one corner. In 1950 the castle underwent a major restoration.
At present the keep of Moriensart Castle is privately inhabited and can not be visited. The buildings of the castle farm are used as a conference center and can be visited as a guest.
Wow, that must be a great house; I would love to live in such a tower.