Paul Grégoire Pierre Wittouck (6 August 1851 – 9 November 1917) was a Belgian industrialist. He and his brother Frantz Wittouck became the largest sugar manufacturers in Belgium in the period leading up to the Great War. He was the grandson of Lawyer and High Magistrate

Guillaume Wittouck Guillaume Wittouck (1749 - 1829) was a Belgian lawyer and High Magistrate. He was the Grandfather of industrialist Paul Wittouck and of Belgian navigator Guillaume Delcourt. Biography Guillaume Wittouck, born in Drogenbos on 30 October 1749 ...

Sugar manufacturer

Paul and his brother (1855–1914) owned a sugar factory in Wanze. They were the first in Belgium to produce crystallized sugar, and to sell sugar lumps. The sugar factory at Wanze became the largest in Belgium after its reorganization by Paul Wittouck in 1887. During the 1887–88 period the factory used the juice of of beets daily, extracted in 13 new plants. The manufacturing steps included carbonation, filtration, evaporation, cooking and processing by turbines. In 1894 the brothers took over Vinckenbosch & Cie and turned it into a limited company. Vinckenbosch's

sugar refinery of Tienen The Sugar refinery of Tienen ( nl, Tiense Suikerraffinaderij; french: Raffinerie Tirlemontoise), a subsidiary of ''Raffinerie Tirlemontoise Group'' (RT Group), is a Belgian sugar producing company. The company whose headquarters is located in Tiene ...

(french: Raffinerie Tirlemontoise) had been founded in 1836–38. The brothers faced fierce competition from other sugar manufacturers in Belgium, but emerged as the dominant firm. Through a series of technical innovations and improvement the volume of sugar produced in Tienen rose from 7,000 tonnes in 1894 to 62,000 tonnes in 1913. The company began to export sugar and the take over other Belgian companies. The Wanze and Tienen plants were integrated into one industrial group shortly before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During the war the factories struggled to continue operations, but were able to manufacture enough to supply the major cities.

Château

The Château de La Fougeraie was built for Paul Wittouck in 1911 by the architects

Louis Süe Louis Süe (14 July 1875 – 7 August 1968) was a French painter, architect, designer and decorator. He and André Mare co-founded the ''Compagnie des arts français'', which produced Art Deco furniture and interior decorations for wealthy customer ...

(1875–1968) and

Paul Huillard Paul Huillard (; 15 February 1875 – 11 February 1966) was a French designer and architect who collaborated on many projects with Louis Süe. Career Paul Huillard was born in Santiago on 15 February 1875. Huillard studied at the ''École nationa ...

(1875–1966). The engineer was L. Bogaerts.

Gustave Louis Jaulmes Gustave Louis Jaulmes (14 April 1873 – 7 January 1959) was an eclectic French artist who followed the neoclassical trend in the Art Deco movement. He created monumental frescoes, paintings, posters, illustrations, cartoons for tapestries and carp ...

(1873–1959) decorated the interior. Sue, Huillard and Jaulmes avoided

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

for the château, and instead chose the fashionable Louis XVI style "à la Greque".

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wittouck, Paul Gregoire Pierre 1851 births 1917 deaths Belgian businesspeople People from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw