Château de Duras

En un regard

Le château en bref

North of Sint-Truiden, in the damp countryside of the Hesbaye, the Château de Duras is one of the great Neoclassical residences of Belgian Limburg. It replaced the fortress of the counts of Duras, attested from the early twelfth century, which Count van der Noot had demolished shortly after 1785 in order to build a modern residence for himself. The Dinant-born architect Ghislain-Joseph Henry drew up the plans, and the works were completed in 1789, on the eve of the upheavals of the late eighteenth century, while the estate still belonged to the Principality of Liège. The building, U-shaped and open onto a courtyard of honour, and surrounded by water, is recognisable by its portico of Ionic columns crowned with a dome and by the restraint of its rendered brick volumes. It forms part of a vast landscaped estate of some 134 hectares, with its outbuildings, its pond and the vistas that extend it. Remodelled in a neo-Baroque style between 1875 and 1902, damaged in 1945, it was restored in 1960–1962. Listed as a monument since 9 October 1948, it remains a major landmark of Flemish Neoclassical heritage.