Trazegnies Castle

Trazegnies Castle
Trazegnies, Province of Hainaut
View of the surviving portions of Trazegnies Castle at the north-west
Type	Castle
Site information
Controlled by	"Friends of Trazegnies Castle" (Les Amis du Château de Trazegnies)
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Partially ruined

Trazegnies Castle (French: Château de Trazegnies) is a castle located in Trazegnies, Courcelles in the Belgian province of Hainaut.

History

Trazegnies was originally a powerful independent seigneurie on the edges of the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Hainaut and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and was ruled by a separate dynasty. The original castle was built by Gilles I in the 11th century but was almost completely destroyed in 1554 by the armies of Henry II of France during the Italian War of 1551–1559. Subsequently rebuilt, a corps de logis was added to the castle by Gillion-Othon de Trazegnies in the Louis XIII style in the 17th century.

The extinction of the Trazegnies dynasty led to the sale of the castle to a coal mine which partitioned off its land, leaving the castle itself to the Belgian state. It had become derelict by 1926 and suffered severe damage from subsidence as a result of underground mining. However, a civic association called the "Friends of Trazegnies Castle" (Les Amis du Château de Trazegnies) successfully opposed its destruction and began a gradual programme of restoration with the support of the Walloon Region. The castle is currently open to the public on designated days.

• 
  Depiction of the castle in Brabantia Illustrata (1705) looking northwards
• 
  View of the gatehouse on the north side
• 
  Modern view of the 17th-century corps de logis and south-east tower
• 
  Coat of arms of the Trazegnies family

See also

• List of castles in Belgium
• Marquess of Trazegnies d'Ittre

External links

• Media related to Trazegnies Castle at Wikimedia Commons
• Trazegnies Castle website