Château de Louvignies

Château de Louvignies is a castle located 6 kilometers from Soignies, in Hainaut Province of Belgium. It was designated as the seat of a lordship in 1389 and was acquired in 1716 by the Governor of Charleroi, Rodrigo de Peralta, who built a castle surrounded by a moat. In 1767, the structure was modernized with a basement addition, a tower and a ground floor stuccoed room decorated to 18th-century tastes.

In 1798, through marriage, the castle became the stronghold of the Villegas Family. The English garden, designed on the plan of a park was created in May, 1834 by C. Th. Petersen, probably at the request of Balthazar de Villegas.

It became the home of Count Léon de Villegas de Saint-Pierre when he gave up a diplomatic career to become mayor of Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, after his marriage in 1868 to Marie-Ferdinande de Maillin. In 1870 the Count began a massive renovation of the property, hiring Désiré Limbourg as the architect to renovate the buildings and Louis Fuchs, as the landscape architect.

After the purchase of additional land, drainage and backfilling of surrounding moats, 600 trees were planted in 1871. The following year a pond, spanned by two bridges, was created and the cooling house was built. In 1873, paths and lawns were completed, and the park was fenced and gated.