Castle Maelstede
About this location
Anyone entering a residential area in Kapelle would not suspect that one of the most powerful castles in Zuid-Beveland once stood here. Castle Maelstede, built on a creek ridge, was the centre of the manorial estate of Kapelle — today only the outlines remain.
Of the five castles within this estate, Maelstede was the most important. The lords of Maelstede, vassals of the count of Flanders, played a major role in the region between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries and maintained close ties with the Cistercians, the order that embanked large parts of Zuid-Beveland and cultivated fruit on a larger scale from an early date.
In the fifteenth century the lineage died out, and after 1750 the castle fell into disrepair and eventually disappeared. Remarkably, the municipality has made the outlines visible in a small park in the middle of the neighbourhood, where an orchard of standard trees now blossoms and bears fruit. Perhaps fruit trees once stood here too — whoever stands here is literally standing on history.