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. No ...

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—al ...

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 ...

. 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 (

), 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 Ernest-Paul Sanson (Paris, 12 May 1836 – Paris, 15 January 1918) was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner. Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile ...

, 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 The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

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 Charles-Joseph Lamoral, 7th Prince de Ligne in French; in German Karl-Joseph Lamoral 7. Fürst von Ligne (also known as Karl Fürst von Ligne or ''Fürst de Ligne''): (23 May 1735 – 13 December 1814) was a field marshal, inhaber of an infantr ...

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

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

History

Gardens

Gallery

See also

References

External links