


I visited this castle in 2009.
Steenbourg Castle, locally known as Château de Steenbourg or Château de Steene, lies near the
village of Steene, south of the city of Dunkerque in the Nord department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
region in France.
Steenbourg Castle was built at the end of the 16th century, south of the village by the mayor of
Bergues: Vigorus de Raepe, Lord of Steenbourg. It was the second castle with this name. Its
predecessor was situated east of the village of Steene.
In 1667 Steenbourg Castle was left by the Vaillant family to the Zylof family. The descendants of the
Zylof family remained owners of the castle until approximately 1970.
Steenbourg Castle was used as a residence and headquarters of Charles de Broqueville, the Belgian
Prime Minister and Minister of War during WW I. During WW II the castle was used as a Kommandantur
by the German army who constructed bunkers and transformed the basement into a prison.
Steenbourg Castle is private property and can not be visited. It is however for sale; just visit the
links on its own website at Chateau de Steenbourg
where you can also see pictures of its interior. The current crisis has also hit the castle because
at first the asking price was 2.5 million Euros and now it has dropped to 1.7 million Euros!
Hopefully it will find a new owner soon because it needs quite some restoration.



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