Château de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne

The Château de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne, a castle in Wallonia near Rochefort in Belgium’s Province of Namur, was built around 1450 on the orders of Jean II de Berlo. A secondary Roman road, linking Givet to Ave-et-Auffe via Lavaux, once ran about a hundred meters from the site. Nearby stood the village of Genimont and a Roman-era settlement. During the medieval period, the region of Lavaux became a border zone between the Principality of Liège and the Duchy of Luxembourg, protected by forts at Agimont, Revogne, Lavaux, and Rochefort. The local lords belonged to the Wellin family, and the earliest known mention of Lavaux dates to 1244.

Jean II de Berlo, lord of Lavaux, began construction of the castle around 1450. In 1456, Louis of Bourbon, nephew of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, became prince-bishop of Liège. Tensions between the towns of Liège and the Duke of Burgundy escalated, with armed bands roaming an increasingly unsafe countryside. Though Jean de Berlo initially sought to remain neutral in the conflicts, he later sided with the prince against Liège’s rebels. Duke Philip sent troops to defend Lavaux, and in 1463, after confronting Dinant, Jean reinforced the castle with the latest military innovations. Following widespread destruction in the area, Jean fled to the court of Louis of Bourbon. Disorder grew in Famenne, and Erard de La Marck, an enemy of the House of Burgundy, ravaged Jean’s lands with Liège’s soldiers. In August 1468, the Duke of Burgundy declared himself Lord of Revogne and Dinant. The peace imposed by his son, Charles the Bold, allowed only the castles of the bishop’s supporters—including Jean de Berlo’s—to be rebuilt after the war. Soon after, the Liège region was plunged into civil war. William de la Marck, backed by the French king, began a conflict in 1482 in which Jean de Berlo was killed. By the end of the 15th century, the castle stood half-ruined and uninhabited by its owners; only Berlo’s widow lived out her final years there after 1482.

On 16 November 2002, the castle hosted the wedding of tennis star Justine Henin and Pierre-Yves Hardenne.