Attre Castle (''Château d'Attre'') is a former
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, now a country house or
château
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...
, in Attre in the municipality of
Brugelette
Brugelette (; ; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
On January 1, 2006, Brugelette had a total population of 3,284. The total area is which gives a population density of .
The municipality consists of t ...
,
province of Hainaut
A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provin ...
,
Wallonia
Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
.
History
The present château at Attre was built in the middle of the 18th century by Count François Philippe Franeau d’Hyon van Gomegnies, on the foundations of a medieval castle that had been in the hands of the family since 1520. The structural work was finished in 1752, and Count François died shortly after in 1755. His son François Ferdinand Franeau d’Hyon continued the work of his father and saw to it that the interior decorations were finished. It took more than 30 years before the interior was completely decorated.
The present building is in a
Neo-Classical style and the interiors are French, mainly
Louis Quinze
The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV styl ...
.
In addition to the landscaped garden and the forest park, it is home to several melancholic
"follies", such as the Belvédère tower ruins, the 15th century dovecote, the hermitage, the Vignou tower, the Swiss chalet, the bath pavilion, "le Rocher", an artificial cave.
See also
*
List of castles in Belgium
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
Sources
Belgian Castles: Attre
Castles in Belgium
Castles in Hainaut (province)
Wallonia's Major Heritage
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