Tournay-Solvay Park, Protected heritage site in Watermael-Boitsfort, Belgium.
Tournay-Solvay Park is a protected heritage site in Watermael-Boitsfort featuring multiple garden areas, ponds, and walking paths. The space contains diverse landscape types ranging from open meadows to wooded areas that form a connected green system.
In 1881 Alfred Solvay, brother and associate of industrialist Ernest Solvay, had a country house built on the Vijverberg by architects Constant Bosmans and Henri Vandeveld in Flemish neo-Renaissance style, alternating white stone and red brick. From 1894 Marie Masson, Alfred's widow, enlarged the park toward the chaussée de la Hulpe to 7 ha; her daughter Thérèse married the Brussels lawyer Emile Tournay, whose surname completed the property's name. Around 1905 architect Jules Brunfaut added a double tower, a large barrel-vault arch and a closed loggia, giving it the look of a château. After Thérèse's death in 1973 the estate was sold, abandoned, bought by the Brussels Region in 1980 and opened to the public the following year; a criminal fire in 1982 reduced the château to ruins, and after stabilization from 2014 it was restored and inaugurated in 2024 as the BEL centre.
The former stables, built in 1920 by Georges Collin and restored in 1992, house the Regional Centre for Ecology Initiation. It runs guided visits, nature courses and ecology workshops in the park. The white Art Nouveau villa, later altered by Alban Chambon, hosts the European Sculpture Foundation.
The park is reachable by tram 8 from Boitsfort Gare station, bus 366, or trains S8 and S81, with free parking available across the street. The paths are well marked and mostly flat, allowing for leisurely walks at a relaxed pace.
Among the park's sculptures is a 2002 replica of an Olmec head found at San Lorenzo in Mexico, made by Pérez Solorzano. It stands near two other works: Mauro Staccioli's large red triangle of 1996 and Thérèse Chotteau's 1998 Kelda or The Eternal Spring, a memorial to Sparenberg.
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