Story

Maria-Anna van den Tempel came into possession of Horst Castle by chance. Owning the castle gave her the opportunity to fully develop her status. As Countess of Haultreppe and Essenbeek, she certainly already had some status, she also had the necessary connections within the Brussels court nobility, but because of the work she had carried out at the castle, she seized the opportunity to move up the social ladder to stand. It was Maria-Anna who had the castle adapted to the standards and comfort of the 17th century. Characteristic of Maria-Anne is the fact that she herself spent very little time effectively in the castle. Much of the work and maintenance of the castle was coordinated by her landlady, Wilhelm Piret. At the time of Maria Anna, the castle was really a small company where everyone had their own task and where everything could be immediately prepared if necessary to receive Maria-Anna and her high visit.​

It contains many fascinating stories, such as the story of the steward who managed the renovations and made the castle the status symbol that Maria-Anne was so proud of.

Experience

To make Horst Castle a real showpiece, Maria-Anna had a lot of renovation and rebuilding work carried out. These were steered in the right direction by the steward, Wilhelm Piret. This story is told once the visitor is in the castle on the basis of a virtually animated model of the castle.​

The model of the castle is a scale model that is placed on a table in the middle of the room. This model is blank, meaning no windows, doors, textures or surroundings are visible. Next to the model is a Hololens. These are Augmented Reality glasses that the visitor can put on.​

In contrast to Virtual Reality glasses, the visitor can still perceive the environment. This means that the visitor can see the model once they have these glasses on. During the experience, the Hololens will ensure that a virtual layer is projected onto the model so that it is animated. Throughout the experience, the story is told by a narrator through the audio of the Hololens. At the same time, the visitor can see the characters of the story appear on the animated model. To further develop the story, interaction with the visitor is required. For example, the visitor has to pull down levers, complete floor plans, place characters in the right place and select the right options. In this way, the visitor gets an insight into the castle, he sees how the castle was renovated in the time of Maria-Anne and how the staff dealt with this.