Kasteel de Viron, Neo-Tudor castle in Dilbeek, Belgium.
Kasteel de Viron is a red-brick Renaissance Revival castle built in 1863 by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar in Dilbeek. Its symmetrical facade has two tall corner towers with dark onion-shaped spires, a stepped central gable with a balcony and round-arched window, and rows of white-framed rectangular windows with pale stone trim. It has served as Dilbeek's town hall since 1923.
The de Viron family, settled in Dilbeek since 1775, bought the medieval castle in 1787 and had it demolished in 1862. Architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar then built the present Renaissance Revival castle for Théodore de Viron on the ruins, registered in the cadastre in 1871. Frantz de Viron sold it to the municipality in 1923, which installed its administration there in 1926; it was protected as a monument in 1990.
The castle is named after the de Viron family, who settled in Dilbeek in 1775 and bought the medieval castle there in 1787. Frantz de Viron sold the building to the municipality in 1923, and the town administration moved in during 1926. In the surrounding park stands the Sint-Alenatoren, a surviving medieval tower named after Saint Alena, who lived in Dilbeek.
The castle has housed Dilbeek's municipal administration since 1923, so the building itself is a working town hall rather than a museum. The surrounding park, which holds the surviving Sint-Alenatoren and the former farm, ice cellar and coach house, can be walked through; a narrow path runs along the lawn at the foot of the red-brick facade.
The castle's 12 towers, 52 rooms, 365 windows and 7 staircases mirror the Julian calendar: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days and 7 days a week. The medieval Sint-Alenatoren, named after Saint Alena who lived in Dilbeek, still stands in the park beside the 1863 building.
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