De Viron Castle ( nl, Kasteel de Viron, french: Château de Viron) is a castle in

Dilbeek Dilbeek () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Dilbeek proper, Groot-Bijgaarden, Itterbeek (with Sint-Anna-Pede), Schepdaal (with Sint-Gertrudis-Pede), ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Haina ...

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 ...

, which houses the offices of the local authority.

History

It was built in 1863 by the

Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar (1811–1880) was a Belgian architect. He is the father of the Cluysenaar family. Family He was born in Kampen in the Netherlands as a son of Joannes Kluysenaar and Garidenia Kluysenaar, a Dutch family of architec ...

, commissioned by the de Viron family, which settled in Dilbeek in 1775. The Tudor-style castle was built on the ruins of a 14th-century fortification which was destroyed in 1862. One of the medieval towers, the Sint-Alenatoren, can still be seen in the park surrounding the current building. It is named after

Saint Alena Saint Alena (also written Alène
Accessed 2012-05-10. or Alina

, who lived in Dilbeek. On his visit to this fort, Charles V was reportedly served rabbit instead of his favourite hare, which resulted in the nickname konijnenfretters (rabbit eaters) for the inhabitants of Dilbeek. It became the town house of Dilbeek in 1923, and was protected as a monument in 1990.

Architectury

The castle counts 12 towers, 52 rooms, 365 windows and 7 staircases. This refers to the Julian Calendar which has 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days and 7 days in a week. The castle lies in a parc, with several other buildings of interest : a farm, an ice cellar and a stagecoach building.

References

External links

* {{Castles in Belgium Dilbeek

Viron Viron may refer to: *Viron P. Vaky (1925–2012), American diplomat *an alternative form of Vyronas, a suburb of Athens, Greece *Viron, a fictional city in ''The Book of the Long Sun'' by Gene Wolfe *Viron, a playable race (or their language) in t ...