Château d'Argenteuil, Renaissance château in Waterloo, Belgium
Château d'Argenteuil is a Renaissance castle in Waterloo set within a sprawling estate that borders the Forêt de Soignes forest. The building features French architectural design with grand interior halls and currently operates as an educational institution.
The current structure was completed in 1858 by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar following a fire that destroyed an earlier building in 1847. This reconstruction created the Renaissance-style château that visitors see today.
The estate's name comes from the Zilverbeek, called Argentine in French, after which founder Ferdinand Meeûs named it. From 1961 to 2002 the château housed Leopold III and Lilian Baels, and for over forty years Belgium had two royal courts, at Laeken and at Argenteuil. The couple received writers, scientists and academics there, and Lilian's Princess Lilian Cardiology Foundation held its colloquiums on the premises.
The château is occupied by the École Européenne de Bruxelles-Argenteuil, a Type III European School, so the building and its grounds are a working school and not open to visitors. The estate lies on the territory of Waterloo, Ohain (Lasne) and La Hulpe in Walloon Brabant. The second surviving château, the 1929 Château Tuck, stands on the same domain.
The estate's name comes from the Zilverbeek, called Argentine in French, the stream that gave Ferdinand Meeûs's domain its title. Meeûs, a banker and governor of the Société Générale, bought 300 hectares of Soignes forest land in 1832 and built the first château there.
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