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The castle of Mesen, lain in a park area close to the rural center of Lede (Oost-Vlaanderen) thanks its name to the last owner, the royal hospice of Mesen (Institut Royal the Messines), which established here after the first world war a new school in substitution for the institute at Mesen that during the war entirely had been devastated. The entirely walled field covers a surface of 7.5 ha, of which a third is approximately taken by the current bldg. complex. The field was from in the 10th century always the residence of the successive lords of Lede. As from 16° up to the 18° centuries it was in the hands of the family Bette.From these 18° centuries period dates the marquisette (1749), a design of the famous Florentine architect Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni and the greenhouse with stables. In the course of the 19° centuries the complex was especially used for industrial aims and a distillery, a sugar factory or a tobacco factory was categorized in it. In 1897, the castle with the field became property of the sisters Canonesses of Jupille. They built the most important volume, particularly it from 1905 dating neo-gothic school complex with chapel. After the first world war the field came in the hands of the royal hospice of Mesen, an institution from the time of Maria-Theresia, which educated children of casualty or disabled soldiers. In 1921, one renovated the bldg. and with Dutch money the Dutch pavilion was accelerated. In 1979, the bldg. were protected as a monument, but because of procedure errors, that protection in the following year was made undone. A new, recent protection application as a monument did not appear feasable. The refusal was related to the bad state of the bldg. and the apprehension for high restoration costs.
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