Top 13 Castles around Chaumont-Gistoux

Excellent quality hotel and restaurant

A beautiful driveway - with a fairly recent iron wayside cross at the beginning - takes you to this 'castle' that has a beautiful domain behind it with quite a few special trees and a large pond. The castle, as a plaque at the entrance says, was inhabited by a certain baron Jean-Pierre de Beaulieu, actually Jean-Pierre baron de Beaulieu-Marconnay in full and Johann Peter von Beaulieu in German. Why in German? Well, Jean-Pierre, J-P to his friends, was born in Lathuy in 1725. And that was part of the Austrian Netherlands at the time. And J-P became a general in the Austrian army where he fought against the Prussians during the Seven Years' War and against the French during the First Coalition War. In the battle against the French, led by a young man named Napoleon, Beaulieu became an artillery general and commander of the Austrian army in Italy. In 1796, however, he was replaced because he had not succeeded in stopping Bonaparte's troops. He died in 1819 in Linz, Austria, on his estate at the ripe old age of 94. So he did not stay here very often. But the domain is still worth it. The castle you see here is not the first one. The first was built around 1777 by the lord general and a second one was built in 1803. Only a few elements of the first castles remain due to destruction during the war. At the end of the 19th century, the castle came into the hands of the Pastur family. That is the same family that bought the castle in Jodoigne that later became known as Pastur Castle - see https://www.komoot.com/nl-nl/highlight/5965104 Finally: in Lathuy you can follow a 'de Beaulieu walk', information board near the church.

While Count Winant de Glymes and his wife still lived in the castle of Vicomté in the seventeenth century, in the eighteenth century it was time for a new castle and this was it. After Winant de Glymes, Marquis Louis de Borgia de Tarazena, governor of Antwerp and nephew of Philippe de Ligne, took charge of Jodoigne. And in 1729 the lordship came into the possession of the Count of Romrée and his wife, Jeanne-Isabelle Vecquemans. In 1730 she had the old dilapidated buildings of the old castle that were still standing here converted into the Château de la Comté, now known as Château Pastur. Mrs. Vecquemans (1692-1756) was of course also from a good family: she came from the family of the barons Van la Vère and lords of s'Gravenwezel. She herself bore the title of Lady of Berentrode and Baert and her father was mayor of Antwerp. She took over the county on 20 March 1754 after the death of her son Henri-François de Romrée (1721-1753). Then the son of her sister Isabelle, Ferdinand-Antoine d'Yve, inherited. And his son then sold it to notary Philippe Pastur, which immediately explains the name Château Pastur. Incidentally, the Pastur family also bought the castle de Beaulieu in neighbouring Lathuy - see https://www.komoot.com/nl-nl/highlight/3224318 Château Pastur is therefore not the same as the castle of Vicomté. However, a long time ago there was already a castle with a large wall within which the then centre of Jodoigne was located, which, thanks to those walls, had to endure less in the turbulent sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than everything outside those city walls.

'Vicomté' stands for viscounty and 'La Vicomté' is sometimes also used as a nickname for Jodoigne. Viscounts of Jodoigne were originally noble titles that were awarded to members of the family de Glymes de Hollebecque, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. This title was often linked to the possession of the castle de la Vicomté. It is not so easy to see the structure and size of this castle by sight. When you come from the Gete you walk along a rising path with an old wall on the left and an old fence with an old gate and old stairs in the depths on the right. It seems as if all this merges seamlessly into the terrain behind the castle of Vicomté. The small tower in brick and Gobertange stone that Dominiek mentions is the first recognizable part of the domain when you walk to the main square. From the main square it is a lot easier: you recognize the house immediately. Photos of the various parts that make it up, with some history, can be found at https://www.destinationbw.be/nl/fiche/ontdekking-en-recreatie/het-kasteel-van-vicomte-jodoigne_TFOLOD-A0-007C-15NJ/ Also mention that on the Vicomté domain there are still remains of the ramparts that once stood around Jodoigne and that were first built in the thirteenth century. That rampart had several towers and gates. It enclosed the primitive castle that stood on the site of the current Château Pastur. Something more about the Counts of Glymes who stayed here in the 17th century: Jodoigne was then just going through a period of decline. The 17th century was called the century of adversity (and the 16th century was not much better). In the 17th century, the King of Spain transferred the Jodoigne estate to Philippe de Ligne, Duke of Aarschot and Arenberg. And a few years later, it was bought by Count Winant de Glymes. Winant de Glymes and his wife Michelle d'Yedeghem lived in this castle of Vicomté. A few dozen meters further on the market, in the chapelle Notre-Dame du Marché, is their tomb. The Glymes family had a strong bond with Jodoigne. Guillaume de Glymes, already lived in a country house in Jodoigne-Souveraine in the fourteenth century, the predecessor of the current castle there that was built by the half-brothers Antoine-Joseph de Glymes and Ernest-Joseph de Spangen.

Huldenberg Castle is nestled between wooded hills and rolling meadows in the picturesque Dijle Valley. Although it is privately owned and not open to visitors, the stately building with its towers and surrounding park forms a beautiful backdrop along your route. Enjoy the peaceful view and the charming atmosphere of the historic landscape here.

In the 12th century, Hendrik, the first Duke of Brabant, founded a new city to the north of the existing Saint-Médard district. The strongest point of the new Brabant lordship was located on a hill overlooking the Grote Gete. In order to fulfil the function of Brabant's bastion, the city was given ramparts and a kind of gate that was reinforced with an impressive tower that functioned as a keep. This original structure, which can be seen on the oldest seal of the city (1224), was gradually and over the centuries arranged as a large manor farm. In the 18th century, Jean-Engelberg, Count de Romrée, began rebuilding the city and had the castle converted into a large and beautiful residence, according to plans by architect Verreucken from Leuven. From then on, the castle was called Château de la Comté. In 1849, the Yves de Bavay family sold the castle to notary Philippe-Joseph Pastur. His descendants lived in the castle for four generations, so that it was soon called the Pastur Castle. After housing a boarding school and the management of a school, the castle was classified in 1971 and purchased by the city of Jodoigne, which housed its administration there in 1988. (Information board on site)

The castle was owned by the Viscounts of Jodoigne and the Counts of Glymes in the 16th and 17th centuries. What remains of the old castle today is a beautiful and large building, recently renovated, whose facade in Gobertange stone gives an extra touch to the Grand’Place. The building continues along the rue de la Maladrerie and ends on a very beautiful turret or “gloriette” in brick and Gobertange stone. The castle is now private. (Experience Walloon Brabant)

Le Château du Lac is best known today as a 5-star hotel. Events are also often organised there and that is why I know it from a professional long-gone past. But the building, whether you call it a castle or rather a glorified villa, it does have a fairly intense past. In the past, the mineral water of Genval was collected and bottled here. Together with the source of Bonne Fontaine, the Château du Lac was the true symbol of Genval-les-Eaux. The Etablissement des Eaux, as it was originally called, was built between 1905 and 1907 by the architect Julien Wendrickx, the future production director of the Compagnie Internationale des Eaux Minérales, to house the collection of sources and the bottling of the mineral water of Genval. After the First World War and the receivership of the companies that managed the Genval site, the castle became the property of an English company before being taken over by the Princes of Merode, who leased the facilities to Schweppes Belgium. The Belgian branch was then managed by John Martin, an English brewer based in Antwerp, who had been importing beers from Great Britain and Ireland to the continent since 1909, including the famous Guinness. He obtained the exclusive production rights for the Schweppes range, which he transferred to Genval in 1952 following the deterioration in the quality of Antwerp's drinking water, which was now pumped into the Albert Canal. Since the divestment of Schweppes in 1988, the John Martin group has further diversified its range, with speciality beers (Timmermans, Gordon, etc.), soft drinks (Orangina) and fruit juices (Looza). After the Schweppes factory moved to Rue du Cerf, the château, now owned by the Martin family, was converted into the five-star Château du Lac Source: https://www.parismatch.be/lifestyle/voyages/2020/08/23/le-lac-de-genval-et-ses-villas-2D3Q25DBTVANBFBV5WXJG3R2NI/