The Castle of Loppem
Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875, with Baron Jean-Baptiste Bethune (1821-1894)
Designed in 1856
Red brick
Near Bruges, Belgium
Rosemary Hill names Baron Bethune as one of A. W. N. Pugin's "greatest admirers" (441), introducing him as a leader of the Gothic Revival in Belgium who had visited Pugin in Ramsgate (441). It seems that the plans for this castle were drawn up by Edward Pugin, and then worked on by Bethune in order to give the building a more Flemish flavour (see "The Castle"). In scale, elaboration and extravagance generally, it is very much in keeping with Edward Pugin's output, and has a natural setting here to rival that of his and George Ashlin's cathedral in Cobh, in Ireland.
Photograph by Marc Ryckaert at Wikimedia Commons, slightly modified. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee.