Stand at the front windows on a Saturday morning and you'll understand why people move to Borgloon and never leave. The park across Graethempoort is still dewy, a few dog walkers cutting through the chestnut trees, and the tower of the Sint-Odulphuskerk is catching the first real light of the day. The smell of fresh bread drifts up from the bakery two streets over. That's the rhythm here — unhurried, grounded, genuinely Belgian in the way that Liège waffles and abbey beer are genuinely Belgian. Not performed for tourists. Just lived.
This 1905 mansion at Graethempoort 16 is one of those buildings that Borgloon has quietly kept for itself. At 381 square metres of living space on a 918 m² plot, it's rare by any measure — the kind of address that almost never surfaces on the market. And when you walk through the front door and hit that entrance hall, with its original wooden staircase rising up through the centre of the house, you get it immediately. The bones here are exceptional.
High ceilings throughout the ground floor — we're talking the kind that make rooms feel like they breathe. Decorative plasterwork cornices, original parquet and terrazzo mosaic floors, ornate period doors, an open fireplace. None of it is reproduction. None of it was added later for effect. It's simply what the house was built with in 1905, and it's been looked after. The front living room and the generous dining room both receive strong natural light through large windows, and the proportions are generous enough that a dining table for twelve wouldn't look out of place.
The kitchen connects directly to a glass veranda at the rear, and this is where the garden announces itself. Two terraces, a pond, mature planting — the kind of outdoor space that took decades to establish and can't be rushed into existence. You can follow the sun all day between the terraces. In July, when Haspengouw is baking and the cherry orchards around town are heavy with fruit, this garden earns its keep completely.
One of the genuinely distinctive features of the property is the separate annex, accessible from its own entrance. It has a small kitchen, a shower room, and a toilet — a self-contained unit that previous owners ran as a professional practice. The possibilities here are real and varied. Use it as a home office entirely separate from family life. Set it up for teenage children or a visiting parent. Rent it independently for additional income. For international buyers especially, the idea of having a caretaker or property manager on-site, or hosting long-stay guests, makes this annex something worth pricing carefully into your thinking.
Below the main house sits a vaulted cellar spanning multiple rooms — proper Belgian cellar architecture, cool and dry, genuinely useful for wine storage or the kind of deep household storage that older homes do so well. Upstairs, three generously proportioned bedrooms, one with a walk-in dressing room. The family bathroom has both a shower and a bathtub as well as a double washbasin. Practical, not fussy. A mezzanine storage room handles overflow, and then there's the attic — currently open, with enough clear volume to add two further bedrooms and a bathroom if a future owner wants to expand the footprint further.
At the back of the property, via the rear garden gate or the back street, there's a detached garage with two original horse stalls. It reads as a nod to the agricultural past of Haspengouw, this flat-fronted fruit-farming country that stretches out in every direction from Borgloon. Practically, it works as a double garage, workshop, or storage for bikes and kayaks and whatever else a life in this part of Belgium demands.
Borgloon sits at the heart of the Haspengouw region, which is its own particular kind of special. Every spring — roughly mid-March through early April — the fruit orchards around town erupt into blossom. It's one of the more photographed landscapes in Belgium, and for good reason: hundreds of kilometres of cycling routes thread through apple and pear trees in full flower, and the region's Fietsroute Haspengouw connects directly through Borgloon itself. The annual Bloesemroute cycling event draws thousands of riders each year. Outside of blossom season, the trails stay excellent — Haspengouw's gently rolling hills are a year-round draw for road cyclists, and the marked walking routes pass through some genuinely quiet countryside.
Five minutes on foot from the front door, the See-Through Church — the Doorkijkkerkje at Twijfelgrens — has become one of the most talked-about art installations in Belgium. Designed by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, it sits on the border between Borgloon and Kerniel and has been photographed by every serious architecture publication in Europe. The surrounding countryside is dotted with further installations connected to the Z-OUT open-air art route, which makes walking and cycling in this area genuinely unlike anywhere else in the country.
The town itself is small — around 10,000 residents across the municipality — which keeps daily life quiet and community-scaled. The weekly market, the local wine producer Genoels-Elderen just a few kilometres south, the Grendelpoort and old town walls that frame the centre — this is a place with real texture. Tongeren, the oldest city in Belgium and home to Europe's largest antique market (every Sunday, rain or shine), is 15 minutes by car. Hasselt, with its gin culture, the National Jenever Museum, and a lively restaurant scene anchored by places like Lam & Leeuw, is 30 minutes. Maastricht — cross the border into the Netherlands for the extraordinary Vrijthof square, Café Sjiek, the bookshop inside the Selexyz Dominicanen church — is also roughly 30 minutes by car. Brussels is under two hours. For international buyers flying in, Liège Airport is the obvious choice, about 35 minutes away, with Brussels Airport adding further connectivity.
Practically speaking, the property is in good condition, with double-glazed wooden window frames, a tiled saddle roof, and gas-fired central heating. It's not located in a flood-risk zone. Full freehold ownership. For buyers from outside Belgium, the purchase process is relatively straightforward — Belgium has no restrictions on foreign ownership, and the notarial system offers a secure, transparent transaction structure. The annex's rental potential adds a practical income dimension that can offset running costs considerably, and the Haspengouw tourism draw means short-term rental demand in this area is genuine and growing.
There's one more thing worth mentioning. The side facade of the property carries a large-scale mural by Tom Herck — the Belgian artist behind Holy Cow and The Wall, whose public work has appeared across Europe. It gives the building an unmistakable street presence. You won't confuse this address with any other on the street.
Key features at a glance:
- 1905 mansion, 381 m² living area on 918 m² total plot
- 3 bedrooms on the first floor, one with walk-in dressing room
- 2 bathrooms including family bath with shower, bathtub, and double washbasin
- Self-contained annex with own entrance, kitchen, shower room, and toilet
- Vaulted multi-room cellar — ideal for wine storage
- Attic with potential for 2 additional bedrooms and bathroom
- Original period features: parquet, terrazzo mosaic, ornate doors, cornices, fireplace
- Landscaped rear garden with pond and two sun terraces
- Detached garage with two original horse stalls, accessible via back street
- Tom Herck mural on side facade
- Public transport to Hasselt, Tongeren, Sint-Truiden stops at the door
- 30 minutes to Hasselt and Maastricht by car, 35 minutes to Liège Airport
- Walking distance to Doorkijkkerkje and Z-OUT art route
- No flood-risk zone, full freehold ownership
- Gas central heating, double glazing, tiled saddle roof
Properties like this one don't sit on the market long in Borgloon — the combination of scale, original character, and a separate income-generating annex in a town this well-connected is genuinely hard to replicate. Get in touch through Homestra today to arrange a private viewing and see what daily life at Graethempoort 16 actually feels like.
