From the 11th century it was part of the domain of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Salvator, until its 1795 dissolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

The remains of the Saint Salvator abbey are today part of a major heritage project in Flanders, established by the Province of East-Flanders.

[4] In early medieval Frankish times, the territory of Ename was under the control of the Saint Peter's abbey of Ghent.

For this reason he assigned to count Godfrey of Verdun, a member of his family who had both Carolingian and Ottonian roots, the border zone along the river Scheldt.

Godfrey and Mathilda initially must have ruled from Velzeke, while they created a trade center with a harbor in Ename, due to its advantageous economic position at the Scheldt.

The river marked the border between the Ottonian Empire and the county of Flanders, which was why Ename had also a strategic military position.

In order to provide a financial income to the abbey, the count donated the village of Ename and other properties in the surroundings.

From 1942 to 1947, professor Van de Walle started the excavation campaign that revealed the Romanesque abbey church of Saint Salvator.

The Belgian National Service for Excavations started a second turn of archaeological investigations in 1982, which lasted till 2002, under the management of Dirk Callebaut.

From 1984 on, the forest Bos t'Ename was the object of a large-scale historical and ecological investigation aimed at tracing back the evolution of the landscape[10][11] The results of all the archaeological and historical investigations on the territory of Ename have been visualised in interactive 3D models, on display on the archaeological site in the Timeframe application.

It is a presentation technique that enables the visitors to virtually discover the abbey buildings and the surrounding landscape over several historical periods.

The oldest trace of the use of the area where the castle stood was a waste ditch and treads, dating back to the second half of the 10th century.

The first one, no longer standing, has been excavated and part of the foundation can be visited on the archaeological site, while Saint Laurentius remains today the parish church of Ename.

Above the main altar, parts of a Majestas Domini fresco are still preserved and bear witness to the richness of the medieval decoration of the church[12] The foundations of the Benedictine abbey of Sain Salvator can be visited in the archaeological site of Ename.