Chateau Nottebohm

The domain Nottebohm in the village Brecht in Belgium is about 58 hectares in size, with a central impressive eclectic mansionand surrounding buildings.

It was on the heritage list but because of the terrible condition of the building and danger of collapsing it is recently demolished.

The park domain with the mansion en surrounding buildings are founded in 1908-1909 by Ferdinand Otto Nottebohm, married with Maria Kreglinenger. The family Nottebohm was a very important family in Antwerp, and are known for there numerous initiatives in healthcare, in Antwerp and also in Brecht there was an institute for skin diseases.

In Brecht the build in 1901 a "Hospital for skin diseases" founded by Maria Amalia Nottebohm-Van Laer.

The mansion itself was build as a holiday residence for the family Nottebohm-Kreglinger en was until 1943 inhabited that way. During the second worldwar the mansion was taken by the German army. After the war the family only visited the mansion sporadic for a vacation. In the fifties the mansion was rented as hotel and restaurant. After that it was mostly abandoned. In the eighties it was for sale but because of the negative result of the sale it was abandoned completely and years of emptyness the exterior looked neglected and the interior disappeared.

The history of the inhabitants.

The brothers Johan Abraham (1783-1866) and Diederich Wilhelm (1781-1871) Nottebohm from Bielefeld in Westfalen Germany, sons of Abraham Nottebohm and Johanna Moeller, came to Antwerp in 1811 and founded a very important tradecompanie in the Mutsaertstraat in Antwerp in 1817. They imported grain, rice, coffee and leather from south America and Asia. In 1852 they opened a rice mil in Antwerp.

The family did important investments in the city, the acadamy, the royal museum for fine arts, the heritage library Hendrik Concience and in the ara or Zurenborg. One of the streets the made in Antwerp, with a lot of buildings in neoclassic style, got the name Nottebohmstraat in 1883.

Dietrich Willem Nottebohm (or Theierry Guillaume), the youngest and long-lived of the 2 brothers, became in 1861 a member of the Belgian hereditary nobility, with the title of Baron, transferable to the first born.

He became chairman of the chambre of commerce of Antwerp and consul-general of Danmark.

He married in 1812 with Marianne Primavesi (Münster,1792-Berchem, 1870) en the got 3 sons and 1 daughter. The 2 sons, Edouard and André had a few kids.

Abraham Edouard Nottebohm (1813-1886), viceconsul of Danmark, married Hortense De Wael (1822-1858) in 1852 and in 1862 he married Isabelle de Wael (1814-1888), sister of Hortense, they got a son who stayed single, and a daughter. This side of the family is extinguished.

François Joseph André Nottebohm (1816-1888) married  in 1861 with Maria Amalia Siglinda, named Linda van Laer (1836-1907). They got 8 children.

Linda van Laer saw that the hospitals in Antwerp for the skinpatients was inadquate and in 1899 she founded a dermatological hospital in the Briarstraat in Antwerp, which she financed completely alone. She took charge of the hospital.

Architect Jos Brascourt designed the plannes for the "Hôpital Dermatologique Nottebohm" in 1899-1900 and the sisters of the Antwerp congrigation of Hospitalsisters Augustinessen took care of the patients. The buildings still excist and from 1976 its been an revalidationcentre an from 1980 a home for the eldery, a carecentre and still as a medical centre.

The children from this marriage where:

*Arthur Nottebohm (1863-1927), married in Buanois aires in 1908 with Olga Paats (1877-1964).

  They had 3 sons who had descendants in Argentina.

*Oscar Nottebohm (1865-1935), he continued the philanthropy within the family by donating a lot of persol     art and books to the city of Antwerp. A lot of those things can be found still in the museums in Antwerp and     the Librairy of Hendrik Concience. This librairy is named after him as "the Nottebohmzaal".

*Augusta Nottebohm (1870-1950), followed her mother as head of the Nottebohmclinic.

*Ferdinand Otto Nottebohm (1876-1943) married in Antwerp in 1904 with Marie Kreglinger (1884-1919)

  They had 2 sons:

          *René Nottebohm (1907-1983) got the title of Baron in 1975, transferable to the first born.

              He married Anita Dekkers (1911-2004) in 1933. 

Important forTeamUrbex

This place was very important for TeamUrbex because here we decided to start with the facebookgroup TeamUrbex. A while later we also had the website.

We are now 4 years active and became a little known in the world of Urban exploring.

Funny story is that we where caught by the "angy ranger" who 2 weeks before we came there, he distroyed a lot of stuff from urban explorers and got himself a lawsuit and he had to pay all the damage he caused. (nothing more than fair :-) )

On the left you can find a picture of the founders of TeamUrbex.

Because of the importants of this place for TeamUrbex we use from day one the picture of Chateau Nottebohm as typical for the group and website.