Château of Ottignies

Although this site is private property and not open to the public, you can still see the tower from the Avenue des Combattants.

The Château of Ottignies is a 17th century château and sits on a hill at a height that overlooks St Remy's Church. Its park is delimited by the Avenue des Combattants, the Avenue Roi Albert, and the Avenue des Villas.

History

A castle already existed in this location in 1180 and the castle of Ottignies itself was cited as of 1312 on the headland dominating the Dyle Valley, in the center of the village.

Given as a fief in the 12th century to a family of Ottignies, the castle passed to the Sombreffe family at the end of the 14th century and then to the Spangen family.

It burned down at the beginning of the 17th century and was rebuilt in 1626.

The Spangen family sold it in 1729 to the Palma-Carillo family who kept it until the end of the feudal regime, in 1809. The last lord of Ottignies was Guillaume-François Bertout de Carillo (1738-1810), whose funeral stone adorns the southern facade of St. Rémy Church of Ottignies.

Since then, the castle belongs to the family Van Der Dussen Kestergat.

The château was visited by King Albert I on January 10, 1919, as evidenced by the inscription engraved above one of the neoclassical doors of the castle.

The ensemble formed by St. Remy's Church, the presbytery, and the Château of Ottignies was registered as historical monuments on May 29, 1952.

The château

The château, built of white painted bricks, is composed of a square tower around which three wings are articulated: a northern wing and a western wing of four bays each, and a southern wing of a single bay.

The square tower is topped by an octagonal roof with square base and carries anchors bearing the date of 1626, date of the reconstruction after the fire at the beginning of the 17th century.

The western facade has two neoclassical doors, one of which bears the following inscription on the lintel:

"H.M. ALBERT I PASSED THIS THRESHOLD ON THE 10TH OF JANUARY 1919"

The northern and southern wings each end with a wall topped with a tiered gable.

The garden and the orangery

To the west of the castle is a French garden bordered on the north by an orangery and greenhouses, on the south by bodies of water and on the west by woods at the edge of which one can admire remarkable trees of very big size (tulip tree of Virginia, purple beech, magnolia ...)

The orangery of four bays is built in red brick and Gobertange stone.

Château d'Ottignies
Avenue des Villas à 1340 Ottignies
Private Property, visible from Avenue des Combattants.