Old Brewery

Old Brewery

Hyacint Caïmo was an officer in the French army from 1812 to 1815 and later until 1825 in the Dutch army. After the independence of Belgium he joined the Belgian army as a captain. When in 1835 Diest’s camp was broken up and transferred to Beverlo, Caïmo was charged with engaging in horse-drawn carriages. He settled in Heppen where he bought a large piece of land in 1836 to build a mansion.

In 1845, Hyacint Caïmo sold his house to his son Ferdinand, who in turn resold the building in 1848. Underneath you can find the different owners: 

  1. Peter-Jan Bemindt, entrepreneur and owner in Bourg. In 1850 Bemindt was convicted of up to two years of imprisonment , due to fraudulent practices in the delivery of meat to the army . He still saw a chance to sell the building in Heppen, and flew to Paris for several years.

  2. Xavier Parée from Mouscron became the next owner in 1850. He had a large warehouse built and installed a brewery. Apparently he had gone too high financially. In September 1851 he disappeared without a trace. The furniture was sold three months later.

  3. Karel Dejoncker from Brussels bought the brewery with adjacent two-storey and grounds during a public sale in 1852 the brewery . He also bought the mill and the brewery in Leopoldsburg, owned by Peter-Jan Bemindt. He dismantled the brewery in Heppen and rented the buildings. Between March 1856 and October 1858 a private guesthouse was housed in the building. Sixteen children of soldiers were brought under the supervision of a shoemaker, a preservation schoolholder, a school teacher, a 26-year-old apprentice and three female assistants. In 1865, father Dejoncker died and the old brewery was sold to the hop merchant Frans Moeyersoens from Aalst.

  4. Richard Vaes-Gerits, a butcher from Heppen is the last owner. He bought it well in 1952 from the heirs Smeets. Until 1960, three more families lived in the building, after which it was furnished as a holiday home for youth groups.

  5. The building was demolished in 2016 (or 2017).

Check out the old postcards too

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