The Château de Belœil is a
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
Now ...
situated in the municipality of
Belœil in the province of
Hainaut,
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. It serves as the main residence of the
princes of Ligne
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
.
The château lies in the middle of a
Baroque garden designed in 1664. The château and gardens can be visited during spring and summer.
History
Belœil became a possession of the
Ligne family
The ''ligne'' ( ), or line or Paris line, is a historic unit of length used in France and elsewhere prior to the adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century, and used in various sciences after that time. The ''loi du 19 frimaire an V ...
in 1394.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the local castle was chosen as the principal residence of the family. The old castle was a fortified rectangular building with a moat surrounding it and had four round towers, one at each angle.
This basic structure is still preserved, although the facades and interiors were greatly altered during the following centuries. The fortified castle was adapted into a luxurious country house (
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
Now ...
), following the French example. The interiors were appointed with fine furniture and the art collection of the family.
During the New Year's celebrations of 1900, disaster struck the château when it burned down completely. Most of the furnishings, including the library of 20,000 rare volumes and the art collection, were saved. The château was rebuilt in the following years by the French architect
Ernest Sanson, while the interiors were redecorated using pieces from the Ligne collections.
Gardens
From 1664 onward, the park was created, with straight alleys, geometrical ponds and imposing perspectives. The typical ''
bosquet
In the French formal garden, a ''bosquet'' (French, from Italian ''bosco'', "grove, wood") is a formal plantation of trees in a wide variety of forms, some open at the bottom and others not. At a minimum a bosquet can be five trees of identical s ...
s'' (garden chambers enclosed by high hedges) were preserved in spite of the changing fashion in the 18th and 19th centuries, when
English landscape gardens were preferred. A small landscape garden with a
folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-cent ...
was installed in the direct vicinity of the château by
Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne.
Gallery
Image:Beloeil.jpg, Château de Belœil
File:Beloeil castel 1 Luc Viatour.jpg, The rear of the château by night
File:Birdhouse swan lake.jpg, A swan in the moat
Image:51008_Beloeil_Château_de_Belœil_08.jpg, Side of the château
File:51008_Beloeil_Château_de_Belœil_01.jpg, The stone staircase
File:Château de Beloeil 1106.jpg, The château's library
See also
*
List of castles and châteaux in Belgium
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beloeil Castle
Wallonia's Major Heritage
Castles in Belgium
Castles in Hainaut (province)
Gardens in Belgium
Museums in Hainaut (province)
Historic house museums in Belgium