The Traitors Belgium 2026: Château de Jemeppe | ArdenNest

Sunday evening, 6 September, 7.55 pm. At our house in Malvoisin the television was on for the start of the new season of De Verraders, the Flemish version of The Traitors on VTM. At the first aerial shots we sat up straight: that square keep, that double moat, that farm with its courtyard. This is no French château anymore. This is Château de Jemeppe in Hargimont, three quarters of an hour from ArdenNest.

Which castle is the castle of De Verraders 2026?

The fifth season was filmed at Château de Jemeppe, also known as Hargimont Castle. Hargimont is a village of Marche-en-Famenne in the province of Luxembourg, right on the edge between the Famenne and the Ardennes. The three previous seasons played out at Château de Béguin in France, the very first one at Erenstein Castle in Dutch Limburg. So this is the first time the twenty well-known Flemings around host Staf Coppens play in a Belgian castle.

The castle is in demand: the Dutch version of De Verraders was filmed at Jemeppe in 2026 as well. The producers reportedly looked at more than a hundred European castles before settling here. We understand why.

An eight-hundred-year-old keep

What you see on television is not a set. The square tower of 23 metres dates from the early thirteenth century. Jean d'Ochain built it as a fortified house in a region where the counts of Namur and Luxembourg made life hard for each other. In 1616 Raes d'Ans, married to heiress Catherine de Jemeppe, had a square castle with a double moat built around it, plus the farm you still see today. The battlements, the pointed roofs on the corner towers and the steep roof on the keep only came between 1865 and 1875, when the de Sauvage-Vercour family had the castle restored. It has been a listed monument since 1982.

In 2022 entrepreneur Sam Baro, owner of football club KAA Gent, bought the estate. Today it is a private venue for weddings, seminars and company events. And now and then a television studio.

Can you visit the castle of De Verraders?

Honest answer: not just like that. Château de Jemeppe is not a museum and has no opening hours. You only get inside as a guest at an event, or by renting the castle for a party yourself, via chateaujemeppe.be.

From the outside, though, the castle is easy to see, and worth it. From the Rue Félix Lefèvre you look through the wrought-iron gate straight at the keep, the corner towers with their red shutters and the lawn with box hedges in front. Park in the village, walk along the gate and the moat, and let the children count the towers they saw on television. Allow a short hour, photos included.

If you want to see a castle properly from the inside, moat and all: on the way back lies Lavaux-Sainte-Anne Castle, which is open to visitors.

Getting from ArdenNest to Château de Jemeppe

From the house in Malvoisin it is 41 kilometres, about 45 minutes. You drive via Beauraing and Wellin to Han-sur-Lesse and Rochefort, then follow the N86 towards Marche-en-Famenne. Just before Marche, turn off to Hargimont. The castle is at Rue Félix Lefèvre 24, 6900 Hargimont.

• Open the route in Google Maps — starting at Rue de la Ferme 3, Malvoisin.
• Going with the whole group? Leave with three or four cars at once. On the way you pass the caves of Han and Rochefort, handy if you want to combine the day.

Make a day of it, kids included

Looking at a castle does not fill a whole day. This is how we would do it with a group of around twenty people and a handful of children:

• 9.30 am, leave Malvoisin. Coffee in the flask, sandwiches in the bag.
• 10.15 am, Hargimont. Walk along the castle, photos at the gate, the keep of De Verraders for real.
• 11 am, Caves of Hotton. Twenty minutes further. An hour underground along a river and through a chamber thirty metres high. It is 12 degrees down there, so bring a jumper. About 580 steps, so no pushchairs. Open from 1 April to 1 November, daily from 10 am to 4 pm (July and August until 5 pm). Adults 15 euros, children aged 3 to 11 12 euros. Booking via grottesdehotton.be is recommended.
• 12.30 pm, lunch. Picnic by the Ourthe in Hotton, or a brasserie on the Place aux Foires in Marche-en-Famenne.
• 2 pm, choose your afternoon. Riveo in Hotton, the river centre with aquariums and a minigolf among the gardens (Rue Haute 4, 9 euros, children 6 euros, combined ticket 14 and 9 euros). Or the Famenne & Art Museum in Marche, with a touch-and-smell trail for children aged 5 to 11, free under 6. Or Durbuy, 25 minutes further, with Adventure Valley and, from 4 July to 11 October 2026, the maize maze of Barvaux.
• 5 pm, back to ArdenNest. Via Rochefort. Chips on the way, or cook at home in the big kitchen.

In the evening: your own Round Table

This is the part we like best. ArdenNest has a long oak table that seats the whole group. After dinner, play your own Traitors: one person secretly picks three traitors, every round claims a victim, every round ends in a vote. There is a board game, but a stack of paper slips and a candle work just as well. Children are surprisingly good at it. And on Sunday at 7.55 pm you simply switch on VTM.

We are glad a show like this is finally being made in a Belgian castle, and in our region at that. The Famenne and the Ardennes are full of towers and moats that few people look at. If a television show brings viewers this way, all the better.

Fancy seeing it for yourself after the episode? This is ArdenNest, our holiday house for 26 people in Gedinne, three quarters of an hour from the castle.