Wikipedia:WikiProject Belgium/Castle, country house, château and kasteel naming conventions

This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention.

Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

This page in a nutshell: Don't translate places named 'château' or 'kasteel' into English.

This is a guideline on naming articles on a castle, country house, palace, château or kasteel.

Note that:

Both the Dutch word kasteel and the French word chateâu refer both to fortified defensive buildings (castles proper) and to stately aristocratic homes (chateâu, manor houses or country houses).
As a result, it is common to see both types of building translated into English as 'castle', although many of them are not castles proper.
Combined with the complication that some aristocratic homes were once intended for defence, it is difficult to separate them.

How to name the articles:

Keep the local name. Example: Kasteel van Arenberg, Château de Seneffe
If it is a château (stately residence, the French term is the normal one in English), describe it as such on the article's page.
Obvious fortified defensive buildings (castles proper) may be called 'castle' if desired. Example: Gravensteen
Grand buildings with obvious connections to royalty may be called 'palace'. Example: Royal Palace of Laeken