Castle of Rumbeke

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The Castle of Rumbeke is one of the oldest Renaissance castles of Belgium. Although most of the building was built during the Renaissance period, it became slightly classicistic after its renovation during the 18th century. During those renovations, the adjacent forest, the Sterrebos or the Star Forest, was added. The forest was modeled after the Prater park in Vienna.

According to legend, Baldwin Iron Arm, Count of Flanders, kidnapped Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bold in 862 in Senlis and brought her to the fortress that used to be at the very location of where the castle stands now. With the intervention of the Pope, the two lovers married in Auxerre, which then resulted in the creation of the County of Flanders.

For centuries, the castle was owned by the counts of Thiennes and Limburg Stirum. The castle of Rumbeke suffered several damages during the invasion of Flanders by French king Louis XIV, as well as during the French Revolution and both world wars more than a century later. In fact, during World War I, it was taken over by the Germans and became for a short period of time, the home of the infamous baron Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron, who was credited with shooting down 80 enemy aircraft in his brightly painted red airplane.

The castle can be seen in the movie 'That Lucky Touch', a comedy which was partially shot in Rumbeke in 1975, starring Roger Moore and Shelley Winters.