How it all started
On September 22nd 2003, Hilde and Hendrik Reyskens-Vanholst bought the Fonteinhof, a protected monument situated in a valuable farming landscape area.
It was love at first sight. Even during our initial sighting of the property, we could already feel the soul of the Fonteinhof and it seemed as if we had been already acquainted with it for years. The place was exactly what we were looking for, whereas the sheer size of the renovations did not discourage us. We followed our heart’s wishes and every day we are thankful for that!
The opportunity and challenge to breathe new life into the Fonteinhof, offering the place a new function and purpose, while safeguarding its soul, was accepted with enthusiasm.
Picture showing the property before the renovations (2000)
The occupation of Fonteinhof goes back to early medieval times. The Fonteinhof is connected by an ancient lime-tree lane with the Saint-Nicolas and Dionysius church of Gotem, dating back to the thirteenth century. During the medieval period, it was compulsory for the lord of the castle farmstead to build the church and appoint and sustain its parish priest. It is one of the sole places in the province of Limburg where the gate of the castle and the church are exactly opposite one another, presenting the possibility for the Fonteinhof family to walk in procession to church for Sunday mass.
The current gatehouse dates from 1729 and functioned as an investment property for the mayors of Hasselt. In its heydays the Fonteinhof extended to nearly 1500 hectares and owned about thirty farm-horses.
At the end of the nineteenth century a daughter of the owning family Briers married knight de Lamine de Bex from Liège, who was an engineer. He developed mechanical fruit squeezers, which led to the foundation in 1914 of the famous Looza fruit juice factory. Looza was established at the property until 1936. In the eighties it was sold and the decline of the Fonteinhof began.
