Château Charles

History

Tervuren had long served as a summer escape for the dukes of Brabant, followed by the Burgundian dukes and the Habsburg Netherlands governors, who used the old Tervuren Castle as a base for hunting in the Sonian Forest. That castle, medieval in origin, was repeatedly updated and redesigned through the 1700s. But its moated setting grew too damp, prompting Governor Charles of Lorraine to order a new residence, the Château Charles. He hired architect Laurent-Benoît Dewez to plan the summer lodge. After Dewez lost favor, Louis Montoyer and Antoine Payen the Elder finished the project. Building began in 1778, and the main structure was ready by 1779, with furnishings quickly added. The palace was inaugurated with grand celebrations on 1 September 1779. It was hardly complete when Charles of Lorraine died in 1780. His nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, first considered selling the country house but instead decided to tear down both the Château Charles and Tervuren Castle, recycling the materials to settle Charles’s debts. Charles’s successors as governors, Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria and her husband Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen, then ordered a new palace in Laeken, built between 1782 and 1784. Nothing of the Château Charles survives today. Dewez’s original plans are held in Belgium’s National Archives, while France’s National Archives possess a plan and drawings of the palace. Two gouache paintings by Olivier Le May, showing the château, remain in a private collection.