Heks Castle ( nl, Kasteel van Heks) 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. Nowaday ...

in the village of Heks in the municipality of

Heers Heers (, li, Hiër ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. Since 1971 it comprises the parishes Batsheers, Opheers, Veulen, Gutschoven and Mettekoven, and since 1977 also Mechelen-Bovelingen, Rukkelingen-Loon (which in 19 ...

, province of Limburg,

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 ...

History

The house was built in the 1770s by the

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

architect Etienne Fayen for the Prince-Bishop of Liège, Franz Karl, Count of Velbrück (1719-1784). As a humanist and nature-lover, the prince-bishop chose this spot in the scenic

Haspengouw The Hesbaye (French, ), or Haspengouw (Dutch and Limburgish, ) is a traditional cultural and geophysical region in eastern Belgium. It is a loamy plateau region which forms a watershed between the Meuse and Scheldt drainage basins. It has been o ...

region on which to build his country house and to lay out a number of gardens, including a Chinese garden, a kitchen garden and a

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

. Later he added one of the first landscaped parks on the European mainland, inspired by the English landscaping of

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

. The bishop died here in 1784.

Today

The estate is now in the private possession of Count Ghislain d' Ursel, since the third generation. They keep the estate in shape and restore the valuable gardens and heritage. The rose garden contains an exceptional assortment of about 250 varieties, of which the oldest were present in the original garden. Since 1970 Countess Michel d'Ursel restored and increased the original formal Renaissance garden laid out by Prince Bishop Velbruck in 1770. In 2003 the Garden of Roses was granted the Award of Garden Excellence by the

World Federation of Rose Societies The World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) is an umbrella association of (as of 2015) 39-member countries' national rose societies. Although founded in 1968 in London by 8 constituent countries' rose societies, the WFRS did not have a first mee ...

. The gardens and the park are open to the public on selected weekends during the summer months.

Notes

External links

Photos
''Global view'' (Belgium)
Castle website
Castles in Belgium Castles in Limburg (Belgium) Gardens in Belgium Tourist attractions in Limburg (Belgium) Rose gardens {{Belgium-castle-stub

History

Today

See also

Notes

External links