In Carolingian times, on the site where the castle was to be built later, there was a motte, the first fortress on an elevation in the floodplain of the Meuse from the tenth century. This fortress was replaced around 1350 by an oval-shaped castle. Inhabited until 1507, it subsequently fell into disrepair and in 1597 a water castle was built by order of Count Herman d’Aspremont-Lynden. The existing castle is only a remnant of this. In 1792, the French claimed the castle and converted it into a military hospital. As such it was used until 1795, after which the original whole was partly demolished. From 1809 the buildings served as an institution for beggars and from 1891 to 1904 as a re-education institution for boys. After a major renovation, the castle was used as a psychiatric institution from 1921 to 1967. At the time of the psychiatric institution, a number of large nursing rooms were set up in the former living area. Large-scale restoration works had already taken place earlier, in 1857. From 1995 to 1998, the castle was again thoroughly restored. The new owner wanted to set up a cinema room in the basement in the 1990s and had the old motte excavated for this purpose. The meter-thick walls of the earlier buildings, which lay like a round ring under the rectangular castle, reappeared on the surface. In the meantime, the building has changed hands again and it is not clear what will happen to the building. The progress of the architectural historical research has been delayed due to a lack of money. A small museum about the history of the complex has been set up in the former living area.
