Jonckholt Castle

Jonckholt Castle, locally known as Kasteel van Jonckholt, lies in a forest north of the village of Hoelbeek, in the Limburg province in the Flemish region in Belgium.

The first traces of occupation at this site date back to ca. 1200 AD. On an artificially raised patch of land next to the Meers Creek, a farm was built out of wood, marl and silex. The farm was circled by a moat and reachable via a drawbridge.

At the beginning of the 14th century the wooden settlement was transformed to a square stone fortification with circular towers, loopholes and a double moat with an earthen defensive wall. For reasons unknown, the site was abandoned in the middle of the 16th century. Later, in the 17th century, it served as a quarry for building materials for the building of nearby Groenendaal Castle.

At present the remains of Jonckholt Castle are freely accessible. There's not much to see but it's in a beautifully quiet, lush green setting. The black stones you see on the grass are the places where, during archaeological excavations, post holes of the farm buildings were found.

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