Monday, September 21, 2009

The Castle of Leeuwergem



Some of you will have noticed that I love visiting castles.
Earlier I wrote about the Castle of Nokere (here), about the Castle of Beloeil and the Castle of 's Gravenwezel ,where Axel Vervoordt lives (here).
Belgium has a lot of beautiful castles and some of them you can visit for the entire year, others only once a year such as the Castle of Leeuwergen, that we visited yesterday because of the garden exhibition which is an annual tradition.
A lot of exhibitors expose their garden related products.

The castle was built during the years 1762-1764 and is surrounded by a 32 hectare park and there is a combination of classical French gardens and a romantic English garden.
The castle even features an internationally celebrated open air theater.

The domain is privately owned by the Baron and Baroness Baudouin della Faille d'Huysse.









The baron and baroness.



The beautiful frontdoor of the castle.




Backside.





You can hear the horsecoaches arriving on the bridge...




This is the reknowned open air theater which is surrounded by beechhedges and beech trees. This provides excellent acoustics.




Oranjerie with her beautiful windows.




Castle is surrounded by water.




The park.
In the distance you can notice 2 sphinxes and this is where the English-styled garden starts.


Grazing horses.



The coach house.


And here below I show you some pictures that I took yesterday by visiting the garden exhibition.





Wonderful plants to buy.




The baron has won a price for the restoration of the oranjerie in 1992. He did the restoration in a perfect compliance with the French style.



Beautiful engravings to discover in the orangerie.


You could even learn more about the different kind of owls!




Jan was interested in sharping knives.




I would have this ornament in my garden!




The vegetable garden.



Me and Ralph.
xx
Greet