Qualla: Castle of Ronse

Castle of Ronse: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gaston Duplouich (Vaast ou Vedastus du Plouich ou Duplouich), Public domain. Two men in the small town of Ronse hated each other so completely that in 1823 one of them watched the other tear down a Renaissance palace rather than let it become a school. The building they fought over had been modeled on the Luxembourg Palace in Paris and called one of the most beautiful in the Southern Netherlands. Its destruction was less a public decision than a piece of personal score-settling between the conservative van Hove family and the progressive Fostier family - the kind of small-town vendetta that almost no one outside Ronse remembers, except that it produced an empty hill where a palace used to stand.

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Image: Gaston Duplouich (Vaast ou Vedastus du Plouich ou Duplouich) | Public domain

Castle of Ronse: Built for a Catholic Branch of Nassau

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pierre Jacques Goetghebuer, Public domain. John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen (1583-1638), commissioned the castle in 1630 to serve as the ancestral seat of the Catholic branch of the House of Nassau. The choice of location was political. The main Nassau line - the Princes of Orange - had become Protestant and was leading ...

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Image: Pierre Jacques Goetghebuer | Public domain

Castle of Ronse: The Dynasty Sells the Building

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petrus Jacobus Goetghebuer, Public domain. John VIII's heirs spent generations arguing over the barony, and their disputes eventually killed the family's interest in actually living in Ronse. By 1745 the property had been sold to the Counts of Merode-Westerloo, who treated it as a property to visit occasionally rather tha...

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Image: Petrus Jacobus Goetghebuer | Public domain

Castle of Ronse: Cotton Looms in the Cellars

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petrus Jacobus Goetghebuer, Public domain. Under Napoleon, Ronse became one of the first towns in the Southern Netherlands to industrialize. The castle was repurposed for that new economy in the most literal way possible. In 1803, the Lousbergs brothers installed 180 cotton looms in the castle's cellars, opening the first...

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Image: Petrus Jacobus Goetghebuer | Public domain

Castle of Ronse: The Feud That Demolished a Palace

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anthony van Dyck, Public domain. By 1823 the castle was sold for 30,000 francs and demolished. The decision was not really architectural or economic. It was a final act in a long-running feud between two families - the van Hoves, who had represented the lord under the old regime, and the Fostiers, who had risen ...

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Image: Anthony van Dyck | Public domain