Page 171 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

ANT WERP, FLEMISH BR ABANT AND LIMBURG  169

château and is now an
extensive recreational park with
playgrounds, sports facilities, a
swimming pool, mini-golf,
rowing on the lake and
imaginative gardens that
include a garden for the blind.
Y Provinciedomein Huizingen
Torleylaan 100, Huizingen. Tel (02)
3830020. Open Apr–Sep: 9am–8pm
daily; Oct–Mar: 9am–sunset daily. &
∑ vlaamsbrabant.be

o Kasteel van
Gaasbeek
Kasteelstraat Gaasbeek; 8 km (5 miles) Wood-panelled walls and paintings in the hall at Kasteel van Gaasbeek
NW of Beersel. Road Map C2.
Tel (02) 5310130. @ Open Apr–Nov: the home of Count Egmont southern Brabant. Today, it
10am–6pm Tue–Sun. & 8 0 = (see p45). Some of the original stretches for 44 sq km (17 sq
∑ kasteelvangaas beek.be castle is still visible within the miles) and is a popular place
current one. It stands in a for walking, cycling and horse
Essentially a Neo-Renaissance commanding position, riding. Splendid beech trees
and Neo-Gothic reconstruction, surrounded by beautiful arch over a network of path-
the castle of Gaasbeek was built wooded parkland, which ways like cathedrals, turning
on a grand scale and in great includes a “museum garden” in golden in autumn. In fact, this
detail by Marie, Marquise the 19th-century style. was formerly an oak forest, but
Arconati Visconti (1840–1923). Beyond the castle lies the was ransacked by Napoleon
She donated it to the Belgian Pajottenland, an area of rolling to build a fleet. Several
state in 1921. Tours led by well- hills and farms, often painted by monasteries were founded
informed guides pass through Pieter Brueghel the Elder in the here in medieval times, but
a series of luxurious rooms, 16th century. most have vanished. Among
decorated in a way that those that have survived are
medieval nobles might have buildings of the Abbaye de
enjoyed. To achieve this effect, p Forêt de Soignes Rouge-Cloître at Auderghem,
the Marquise amassed a wealth 15 km (9 miles) E of Gaasbeek. which now house an arts centre
of exquisite artifacts, including Road Map C2. @ 41, 71, 72. and restaurant. The beautiful
medieval sculpture, valuable q Hermann Debroux. v 23, 44, 90. grounds of a 14th–18th-century
paintings, antique furniture and ∑ sonianforest.be priory at Hoeilaart form the
Brussels tapestries. The castle Groenendaal Arboretum, with
also runs tem porary exhibitions. An old ducal hunting forest, the more than 400 tree species.
Gaasbeek is located on the site Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soignes The Geografisch Arboretum
of an ancient and important in French and Zoniënwoud in at Tervuren, with 460 species,
13th-century fortress that was Dutch) once covered much of also adjoins the forest.

The Forêt de Soignes, once a royal hunting ground and now a park

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