The Château of Val-Duchesse (French: Château de Val-Duchesse, Dutch: Kasteel van Hertoginnedal) is a mansion and estate situated in the municipality of Auderghem in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. The château, which occupies the site of a former priory, is owned by the Belgian Royal Trust.

Val-Duchesse played an important role as a venue for negotiations in Belgian and European politics after World War II. In 1956, Paul Henri Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the château, which prepared the Treaties of Rome in 1957 and the foundation of the European Economic Community and Euratom in 1958. The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission, the first European Commission, under the presidency of Walter Hallstein, was held on 16 January 1958 at the château.

From 23-25 April 1990, it hosted the Western European Union International Conference which agreed the sequence of accession of the Eastern European Countries of the former Warsaw Pact to European structures.[citation needed]

More recently, it has twice hosted the Belgo-British Conference, in 2002 and 2006.

History

The priory for women was founded in 1262 by Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant, widow of Henry III, Duke of Brabant. "Duchess Adelaide" gave her name to the place Val Duchesse or Hertoginnedal (both meaning Valley of the Duchess). According to the legend Aleydis was inspired by Saint Thomas of Aquin who is said to have been a guest at Val Duchesse. It was the first priory for women in the Low Countries that followed the rule of Saint Dominic and was generously donated by Aleydis and other noble ladies. According to her wish Aleydis' heart was interred at a mausoleum that today has disappeared.

The priory further flourished and gained considerable wealth thanks to the generous gifts of numerous royal persons and noble families. In 1650 a wall was erected to protect the diverse edifices of the priory. The present-day château was built as a residence for the prioress in 1780.

The Château of Val-Duchesse 

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Le château de la Solitude (en néerlandais : Kasteel "la Solitude") est un château de style néo-classique édifié de 1910 à 1912 par l'architecte François Malfait en lisière de la forêt de Soignes à Auderghem pour la princesse Marie Ludmille Rose de Croÿ, née duchesse et princesse d’Arenberg (1870-1953).

Devenue veuve en 1906, la duchesse s’isola dans son château jusqu'à sa mort, y recherchant l’amitié des animaux. Après sa mort, le domaine d’une superficie de 11 ha 27 a 19 ca fut acheté par l’État. Il en fit une école pour enfants de forains. Ensuite, le château a accueilli le Centre Infosida jusqu’en 1995, époque où il fut réquisitionné par les « Compagnons du partage », un groupe de sans abri, une action partant de différentes revendications au droit à un revenu minimum d’insertion auprès des CPAS.

Il fut enfin vendu à une société qui y construira un complexe de bureaux.

Le château fait l'objet d'un classement au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 20 janvier 2000.

Kasteel La Solitude

This eclectic chateau was built in the final quarter of the 19th century by the architect and designer Albert Charle, who was known as Charle Albert and who lived there for only a few years.

Between 1900 and 1914, the building was used as a college for young women from well-to-do families, and was then made available to the emergency services during the Great War by its two English owners, who converted it into a military hospital.

After the war, the “Maison Flamande” (Flemish House) was sold to a succession of private owners who, in turn, sold it in 1933 to the Prime Minister, Paul van Zeeland, who lived there until the start of the Second World War.

Occupied by the German army from 1940 to 1945, the chateau was subsequently recovered by its owner (upon his return from exile in the United States of America), who lived there until his death in 1973.

Abandoned immediately following his death, the chateau became home to squatters and was looted, defaced by graffiti and suffered three separate fires, rapidly falling into a state of ruin (for photographs, do a Google image search of “urbex Charle Albert”) until it was purchased in 1998 by a property developer who unsuccessfully tried to tear it down to build offices in its place.

The building (excluding the interior) was listed in the 1990s by the Royal Commission of Monuments and Sites, and was rebuilt exactly as before by its current owner as part of a massive project which began upon its repurchase in 2012 and was completed in 2015.

The renovation of the building is complete (except for some interior features), while the renovation of the grounds (fencing, flower beds, romantic bridge, lawns, pond, open-air theatre, etc.) has become possible since the granting of the necessary planning permission in January 2017.

The site is listed (and is therefore eligible for renovation subsidies) and is partly located in the “Natura 2000” protection area given its connection to the Sonian Forest.

The entire property is assigned for “office” use, although its current interior layout (non-listed) corresponds to its current use (housing).

A change of use from “office” to “housing” is usually a simple administrative formality, while the reverse is not true. All the more so as, in this case, this exceptional building has always been a dwelling.

http://www.charlealbert.be/

Château Charle Albert


The Château Malou is a neoclassical building in the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in Brussels, Belgium. The Château Malou is situated at an altitude of 52 metres (171 feet).

History

The château was built in 1776 in the neoclassical style by a wealthy merchant called Lambert de Lamberts. The current building replaced a small 17th-century hunting lodge.

One of the château's owners was the orangist minister Pierre van Gobbelschroy, until the end of the Dutch period in 1829. After Belgium gained its independence from The United Kingdom of Netherlands, the château changed owners and eventually passed to the Finance Minister of the new Belgian government, Jules Malou (1810–1886). Malou occupied the building from 1853 onwards and the building has retained his name ever since.

The château is now the property of the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and is primarily used for cultural activities, exhibitions, etc.

Maloukasteel

The Royal Palace of Brussels is the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capital Brussels. However it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family live in the Royal Palace of Laeken on the outskirts of Brussels. The website of the Belgian Monarchy describes the function of the palace as follows:

The Palace is where His Majesty the King exercises his prerogatives as Head of State, grants audiences and deals with affairs of state. Apart from the offices of the King and the Queen, the Royal Palace houses the services of the Grand Marshal of the Court, the King's Head of Cabinet, the Head of the King's Military Household and the Intendant of the King's Civil List. The Palace also includes the State Rooms where large receptions are held, as well as the apartments provided for foreign Heads of State during official visits.

The palace is situated in front of Brussels Park. A long square called the Paleizenplein/Place des Palais separates the palace from the park. The middle axis of the park marks both the middle peristyle of the palace and the middle of the facing building on the other side of the park, which is the Palace of the Nation (the Belgian Federal Parliament building). The two facing buildings are said to symbolize Belgium's system of government: a constitutional monarchy.

As often mentioned, it has a facade 50% longer than that of Buckingham Palace but its floor area of 33,027 m2 is less than half of Buckingham Palace's floor area (77,000 m2).

History

The facade existing today was only built after 1900 on the initiative of King Leopold II. The first nucleus of the present-day building dates from the end of the 18th century. However, the grounds on which the palace stands were once part of the Coudenberg Palace a very old palatial complex that dated back to the Middle Ages.

The first building on the Coudenberg hill was constructed between the second half of the 11th and first half of the 12th century. At that time it probably looked like a fortified castle forming a part of the fortifications of the city of Brussels. It was the home of the Dukes of Brabant who also resided in the nearby city of Leuven and in the Castle of Tervuren. In the following centuries it was rebuilt, extended and improved in line with the increased prestige of the Dukes of Brabant and their successors; the Dukes of Burgundy, the Emperor Charles V, the Archduke Albert of Austria and Infanta Isabel of Spain and successive Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands.

The Aula Magna, or Throne Room, was built for Philip the Good in the 15th century. It was in this room that the Emperor Charles V abdicated in 1555 in favour of his son Philip II of Spain. This prestigious complex was unfortunately destroyed by a fire on February 3, 1731. The ruins only disappeared when the district was redeveloped after 1775. At that time the urban axes of the present-day Brussels Park were laid out. The Place Royale was built on top of the ruined palace. Excavations of the site by different archeological organisations have unearthed various remains of different parts of the Palace as well as the surrounding town. The monumental vaults remaining under the square and its surrounding buildings can be visited.

The New Palace
Charles Alexander of Lorraine, at that time Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands had a new palace, the Palace of Charles of Lorraine, built on the nearby site of the former palace of the Nassau family (Hof van Nassau). The Palace of Charles of Lorraine is now part of the Royal Library of Belgium. The old palace garden was redesigned as a public park. On the north side a new building for the Council of Brabant (Raad van Brabant / Conseil de Brabant) was built by the French architect Gilles Barnabé Guimard, which today houses the Belgian Federal Parliament and is known as the 'Palace of the Nation'. On the other side of the park (the building plot of the present-day palace) the middle axis of the park continued as a street between two newly built mansions. One served as the residence of the Abbot of the nearby Coudenberg Abbey, while the other was inhabited by important government members.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Brussels became (together with The Hague) the joint capital of the new established United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was under the rule of William I of the Netherlands that the street was covered and the two mansions were joined with a gallery. The newly created 'palace' received a new neo-classic facade designed by Tilman-François Suys with a peristyle in the middle, and a balcony with a wrought iron parapet surrounding the entire first floor.

The street running alongside the new palace was widened and thus the Place des Palais or Paleizenplein was created. The new square was called 'Square of the Palaces' in plural, because another palace was built on the left side of the Royal Palace. This new building (1823) was designed as the residence of the Crown Prince called the Prince of Orange (the later King William II of the Netherlands). Today it houses the Royal Academies of Sciences and Arts of Belgium and is consequently called Academiënpaleis / Palais des Academies. The rooms and 'Salons' of the old mansions were incorporated in the new Royal Palace and were only partly refurnished. Some of them survived al the 19th and 20th century renovations and are still partly intact today. A major addition to the interior decoration from the time of William I is the so-called 'Empire room' which was designed as a ballroom. It has a very refined cream and gold decoration designed and executed by the famous French sculptor François Rude.

Extensions by Leopold II

After the Belgian revolution the palace was offered to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg when he ascended the throne as the first King of the Belgians. Just like his predecessor William II he used the palace mainly for official receptions and other representational purposes and lived in the Royal Palace of Laeken. During his reign (until 1865) little was changed to the palace. It was his son and successor Leopold II who judged the building to be too modest for a king of his stature, and who kept on enlarging and embellishing the palace until his death in 1909. During his reign the palace nearly doubled in surface. After the designs of his architect Alphonse Balat, imposing rooms like the 'Grand Staircase', 'Throne Room' and the 'Grande Gallerie' were added. Balat also planned a new façade but died before the plans could be executed.

It was only after 1904 that the new façade was executed after new plans by Henri Maquet. The pediment sculpture shows an allegorical figure of Belgium flanked by groups representing Industry and Agriculture, by Belgian sculptor Thomas Vinçotte. The new design included a formal front garden separating the building from the 'Place des Palais'.

Royal Palace of Brussels

The Egmont Palace (French: Palais d'Egmont, Dutch: Egmontpaleis) is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium. It is situated in the Sablon/Zavel district, between Rue aux Laines/Wolstraat and the Petit Sablon Square. Today, it houses the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

History

The original mansion was built between 1548 and 1560 by Françoise of Luxembourg and her son, Lamoral, Count of Egmont, first in a Flemish Gothic, and later Renaissance style. The fabric was dramatically transformed in the 18th century, when the property passed onto the Arenberg family, and the building was clothed in a neoclassical style. The plans for this stage are attributed to the early advocate of neoclassicism, Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni. After a fire demolished the oldest part of the building in 1891, it was reconstructed in a uniform neoclassical style.

The venue hosted the fencing events for the 1920 Summer Olympics in the garden.[1] After World War I, the German Arenberg family was forced to sell the building to the City of Brussels. In 1964, it was sold to the Belgian state. In 1977, the Egmont pact on the Belgian state reform was signed in the Egmont Palace during the second administration of then Prime Minister of Belgium Leo Tindemans.

Since 1992, the palace has been listed as a protected monument.[2] Nowadays, it is used for receptions and meetings by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hosts many events organised by the Royal Institute for International Relations.

Egmont Palace

The Palace of Charles of Lorraine is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium. It served as the residence of Charles Alexander of Lorraine, the Governor-General of what was then Austrian Netherlands from 1744 to 1780. The palace currently houses a museum.

Located on what is now the Museum Square, the palace is located near the Coudenberg hill, not far from nearby institutions such as the Place Royale/Koningsplein (the Belgian Royal Palace), as well as the Royal Library, the national library of Belgium.

History
Charles of Lorraine was the governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1744 to 1780. He was an avid art and science enthusiast and collector. His palace, the construction of which started in 1757, later housed the Royal Library’s reading rooms.

An impressive staircase, adorned with a statue of Hercules sculpted by Laurent Delvaux, leads up to the first-floor rotunda. The rotunda’s paving includes a central rosette made up of 28 types of Belgian marble, a sample of the Prince’s collection of 5,000 minerals. This wonderful floor art leads to five rooms decorated with stuccos and silk, where the governor would entertain his guests and take care of state affairs.

Since 2001, the palace has been listed as a protected monument.

https://www.kbr.be/en/venue/palace-of-charles-of-lorraine/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Charles_of_Lorraine

Palace of Charles of Lorraine

The history of this castle ‘Kasteel Ter Meeren’ starts in the early 11th century. The first building on this site was a donjon. The Ancient Roman donjon and was built to rule and protect four strategic ancient Roman roads. The tower served as a prison, there are still iron rings in the basement today.

In 1449 a chapel was added to the donjon, and later more buildings formed the castle as it is today. The tower is very rare. It consists of dozens of metal tubes through which sparrows can fly in, but they will never fly out. Instead, they’ll end up on the master’s plate.

The old wing from the year 1450 consists of a huge hall with staircases, a fumoir, a waiting room, a big salon, a library, a little salon, and a dining room. These rooms were tastefully decorated with old Belgian and Rhine furniture, with tapestries and paintings. In the dining room there’s a giant chimney with bas-relief in albast. The staff rooms are in the northern wing. In the hall there is a monumental wooden staircase that leads to the first floor, the private quarters of the master.

1865
Newer wings were built and in 1865 a coach house with rooms for the personnel on the first floor. Next to this was the hunter’s lodge. After the hunting party, hunters could come here and drink beer and brandy and smoke cigars while they exchanged hunting stories. The horse stables are luxuriously equipped with marble troughs. Next to these are several coach garages. To bad these buildings are heavily damaged due to the weather.

1992
It is claimed that Charles V came to the castle for hunting and was accompanied by his son Don Juan, later king of Spain and governor-general of the Netherlands during the Spanish Fury. Also Prince Willem of Oranje-Nassau was a guest at the castle. In the 19th century the donjon was used as an inn for the farmers who came to pay their lease. During the First World War the Germans, who destroyed and stole a great deal of treasures and artwork, occupied the castle. Besides the castle, the stables, a house for the priest there is also a swimming pool, a tennis field and a huge park. In 1992 the last owner left Kasteel Ter Meeren. It has been sold by a real-estate company. I visited the castle in 2006. Renovation started in 2009 and was finished one year later.


https://www.urbex.nl/kasteel-ter-meeren/

Kasteel Ter Meeren

Neogotisch kasteel, opgericht in 1858 naar een ontwerp van ingenieur Jozef Claes (Antwerpen) ter plaatse van het 15de-eeuwse kasteel van de heerlijkheid Ter Heyde. Het kasteel wordt omgeven door een park dat vandaag fungeert als gemeentepark. Ten oosten van het kasteel ligt de voormalige kasteelhoeve met de kapel, beide in kern opklimmend tot de 17de eeuw.

Historiek
Twee belangrijke heerlijkheden lagen aan de basis van het huidige Hoeilaart: de heerlijkheid Ter Heyde ten zuiden van de IJse enerzijds en de heerlijkheid Holaer of Hoeilaart ten noorden van de IJse anderzijds. De oudst bekende eigenaar van de heerlijkheid Ter Heyde was de familie van Hoeilaart, genaamd de Holar waarvan Soteman de Holar voorkomt in een akte van 1186. De laatste eigenaar, eveneens de laatste vertegenwoordiger van het ancien régime was François Joseph Ignace Pangaert (+ 1798).

Na de afschaffing van het ancien régime werd de heerlijkheid Ter Heyde opgeslorpt door de gemeente Hoeilaart. Het patrimonium ervan werd in 1823, sommige bronnen geven 1820, aangekocht door Jozef de Man, die later de titel verwierf van baron de Man d'Hobruge en burgemeester van Hoeilaart was in de periode 1823-1846 en 1848-1854. Het huidige kasteel werd in 1858 gebouwd in opdracht van zijn zoon baron Jean de Man d’Attenrode (burgemeester van Hoeilaart van 1854-1878) en zijn echtgenote Maria Carolina d’Ormesson. Het ontwerp was van de hand van Jozef Claes, zie gedenksteen in de kelder. Het kasteel werd kadastraal geregistreerd in 1861 als 'nouvelle construction', bestaande uit een kasteel omgeven door 'lustgrond' in eigendom van 'Joannes Deman d’Attenrode'.

Bij beslissing van 17 september 1919 werden park, kasteel en kasteelhoeve -op dat ogenblik nog steeds eigendom van de familie de Man- aangekocht door de gemeente. De 'promesse de ventes sous seing privé' dateert van 13 juli 1920. In de eerste helft van de jaren 1990 onderging het kasteel een renovatie- en opfrissingsbeurt.

https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/39785

Kasteel de Man

Bestaande uit het poortgebouw van de 15de-eeuwse burcht van de opeenvolgende heren van Diegem en een rechthoekig paviljoen, opgericht als cultureel centrum in het derde kwart van de twintigste eeuw, ter vervanging van het oudere kasteel met traditionele kern, zie oude foto's.

Omwaterd complex met deels omringend park, eertijds gelegen op de oever van de Woluwe. In 1738 werd het goed omschreven als een waterburcht met ophaalbrug "een sekere huyse van plaisantie met syne optreckende brugghe ende waeter rondomme met de dreve, pachthoff, schure, stallingen... geheeten het Seyp". De huidige naamgeving Marga klimt op tot het begin van de twintigste eeuw en verwijst naar de laatste privé-eigenaar August Ulric Marga, die het goed aankocht in 1902. In 1927 werd het kasteel door de familie Marga verkocht aan de Interkommunale Vereniging tot Sanering van de Woluwevallei, sinds 1953 is het complex eigendom van de gemeente. Het poortgebouw werd beschermd als monument bij Koninklijk Besluit van 20 februari 1939.

Op afbeeldingen van 1699 en 1730 ziet men een gesloten waterkasteel, opgetrokken uit de lokale zandsteen en toegankelijk via een poortgebouw waarin men de nog bestaande Margatorens herkent met drie kegelvormige spitsen; in de oostgevel bemerkt men in de meest zuidelijke travee een spitsboogvenster dat vermoedelijk verwijst naar het bestaan van een kapel. De mutatieschetsen van het kadaster vertonen tot 1866 nog een U-vormig omwaterd ensemble; in dat jaar werd de zuidoostelijke vleugel gesloopt en bleven enkel het zuidwestelijk gelegen poortgebouw en het noordoostelijk gelegen kasteel over. Prentkaarten uit het begin van de twintigste eeuw tonen het voorgebouw met een centraal tentdak en twee spitsen, ten noorden ligt het sober uitgewerkte, bepleisterde kasteel van tien traveeën en twee bouwlagen onder mansardedak. Het algemene volume op rechthoekige plattegrond met hoge rechthoekige vensters en de lelieankers doen een traditionele kern vermoeden; de centrale rondboogdeur zit gevat in een eenvoudige entablementomlijsting. Dit gebouw brandde af in 1945.

Het gemeentebestuur kocht het domein in 1953 om het tot nieuw gemeentehuis te verbouwen; uiteindelijk werd op het einde van de jaren 1960 beslist om er een cultureel centrum op te richten. Ter plaatse van de vroegere kasteelvleugel ontwierp de Machelse architect Karel Roelants een constructie die qua algemene vormgeving en volume, hoewel beduidend lager, nog min of meer refereert aan de vroegere toestand. Voor de opbouw van de nieuwe constructie werd recuperatiemateriaal van het oude kasteel gebruikt.

Het vijftiende-eeuwse, uit lokale zandsteen opgetrokken poortgebouw werd in 1987 gerestaureerd naar ontwerp van het architectenatelier AA. Het omvat een centraal rechthoekig volume van drie bouwlagen onder leien tentdak voorafgegaan door ronde, flankerende hoektorens met gedichte steigergaten onder leien spitsen op kraagstenen. De bovenbouw van de torens kraagt licht uit ten opzichte van de opengewerkte basis met pijlers verbonden door rondbogen. Het hele gebouw heeft op de tweede bouwlaag rechthoekige vensters die overspannen worden door brede ontlastingsbogen; de bovenverdieping wordt geopend door kruis- en kloosterkozijnen; schietgaten bevinden zich aan weerszijden van de torens. Het hoofdvolume heeft een licht uitkragende bovenverdieping op korbelen in de zuidgevel en in de westgevel een nagenoeg gevelhoge rondboognis, de kleine vierkante vensters en lichtgleuven in de noordwestelijke hoek verwijzen naar de ligging van de spiltrap. De zandstenen korfboogbrug met gekasseid wegdek geeft, via de korfboogdoorgang met gekalkt tongewelf, toegang tot de eveneens gekasseide binnenplaats. Boven de doorgang zat eertijds een gevelsteen met het wapenschild van Antoon Happart (1670-1715) en zijn echtgenote Anna Carolina de Fierlant; deze steen is heden verdwenen; volgens literatuurbronnen werd hij bij de verkoop in 1927 meegenomen door de dochters van August Marga. Inwendig vertoont de tweede bouwlaag in de centrale ruimte een ribgewelf op consoles met centrale sluitsteen en twee hoekkamers met een koepelgewelf; op de derde bouwlaag bestaat de zoldering uit moer- en kinderbalken; spiltrap in de noordelijke hoek.

Het omringende park strekt zich uit tussen het Alfons De Cockplein, de Woluwelaan, de Corneel De Ceusterstraat en de Kerktorenstraat, waar een deel van de zandstenen kasteelmuur en twee vierkante hekpijlers bewaard bleven (nummer 41). De voorheen aanwezige vijver werd gedicht in 1943 en in 1956 werd het voormalige kasteelpark ingericht als gemeentelijk park met voetbalveld.





https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/77569

Margapavilioen

The Palace of Laeken, is the official residence of the King of the Belgians and the royal family. It lies in the Brussels region, 5 km (3 mi) north of the city centre in the municipality of Laeken. It sits in a large park called the Royal Domain of Laeken, which is off-limits to the public. It was originally named the Castle of Schonenberg and is often referred to as the Royal Castle.

The palace at Laeken should not be confused with the Royal Palace of Brussels, in central Brussels, which is the official palace (not residence) of the King of the Belgians and from which state affairs are handled.

History

he palace was built at Laeken, then outside of Brussels, between 1782-1784 after the plans of the French architect Charles de Wailly under supervision of Louis Montoyer as a summer residence for the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands, Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Teschen. Jean-Joseph Chapuis provided the royal furniture.

On 21 July 1803, Nicolas-Jean Rouppe, as commissioner of the department of the Dyle, received Napoleon at the Palace of Laeken. Napoleon stayed at Laeken with the Empress Josephine in August 1804 on his way from awarding the first Légion d'honneur to his invasion troops at Boulogne to his progress along the Rhine, and later during the Hundred Days in 1815 dated this proclamation prematurely from the palace:

To the Belgians and the inhabitants of the left bank of the Rhine. The ephemeral success of my enemies detached you for a moment from my empire. In my exile, upon a rock in the sea, I heard your complaint; the God of Battles has decided the fate of your beautiful provinces; Napoleon is among you; you are worthy to be Frenchmen. Rise in a body; join my invincible phalanxes to exterminate the remainder of these barbarians, who are your enemies and mine: they fly with rage and despair in their hearts.

After Belgian independence, Rouppe, as mayor of Brussels, received the new king Leopold I at the Palace of Laeken on 21 July 1831; the day of Leopold's coronation. The palace was partly destroyed by fire in 1890 and was rebuilt by Alphonse Balat. The French architect Charles Girault gave it its present outline in 1902. It has been the royal residence since Leopold I's accession to the throne in 1831. The domain also contains the magnificent Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, a set of monumental dome-shaped constructions, accessible to the public for a few days each year. They were designed as well by Alphonse Balat, with the cooperation of the young Victor Horta.

Upon their accession to the throne in 1993, King Albert II and Queen Paola preferred to remain living at Belvédère, a château on the grounds of the park surrounding the palace. The current occupants of the palace are King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and their four children.