Xhos Castle
The Xhos Castle ( French Château de Xhos or Château de lʼAvouerie ( German Bailiwick ) is a castle complex in Tavier, a district of the Belgian municipality of Anthisnes in the province of Liège . Erected by Pierre de Méan in the 17th century and later modified several times by his descendants, the three-winged castle now belongs to the von Oultremont family, who use it as their private residence. The buildings can therefore not be visited.
history
When the Liège Bishop Notger founded the collegiate monastery Sainte-Croix in Liège in 976 , he endowed it with the area of the later Seigneurie Xhos. Another part belonged to the possessions of the collegiate chapter of Saint-Martin. Xhos later belonged to the Val-St-Lambert monastery and was mentioned in monastic documents from 1235 and 1391 as Scoche and Xhoche . Connected to the land and the manor was the high level of jurisdiction , which in 1391 still lay with the Saint-Martin monastery and was accordingly exercised by a bailiff . These bailiffs already had a seat in Xhos in the Middle Ages, but it was not at the site of today's castle, but probably where the farmyard is today. In the beginning the high judiciary was in the hands of the von Ochain family, from 1574 they exercised members of the von Brialmont family. An heir to the Brialmonts married a member of the Glimes family , the Viscount of Vastines, and brought him the property.
In 1660, the baron Pierre de Méan acquired the property and built a new castle, the main house of which was still strongly reminiscent of a residential tower . An engraving based on a drawing by the Flemish artist Remacle Leloup from 1734 shows the complex still largely unchanged. Which was an act of war Vorburg destroyed but rebuilt by Pierre's grandson of the same name. The lord of the castle also had the garden changed and long linden alleys laid out. In 1738 Xhos was raised to an independent seigneury by the Liège prince-bishop Georg Ludwig von Berghes . In the middle of the 18th century the logis underwent major changes and essentially got its current appearance. The pillars framing the main entrance were removed and - especially on the southern rear side - further window openings were broken out. When the Counts of Méan died out with François-Eugène de Méan in 1876, they were inherited by the von Oultremont family, who are still the owners today.
Under Eugène dʼOultremont (1844–1889) the palace complex was rebuilt again. For example, the count had a large greenhouse built on the north side of the garden, a wrought-iron grating erected to close off the courtyard and the enlargement of the buildings used for agriculture. The last male member of the Oultremont family on Xhos was Count Marc Eugène, who died in 2000. The castle is currently inhabited by his sister Alix Adrienne, married Baroness Ullens de Schoten.
description
The palace complex consists of a three-winged manor house and adjoining farm buildings. The wings are arranged in a U-shape and enclose a courtyard of honor, which is closed on its north side by a semicircular lattice fence. A straight avenue over 200 meters long leads from the north to the centrally located gate. Its square pillars are crowned by stone vases. In the upper part of the gate there are the letters O and X for Oultremont and Xhos. Brick , sandstone and local limestone in gray, brown, brown-red and yellow colors were used as building material for the buildings , so that the facades are extraordinarily colorful.
Lodging
The facility's accommodation is a three-storey building with a mezzanine floor and a slate-covered , bent hipped roof . Its lucarnen date from around 1900. Weather vanes with the dates 1765 and 1909 are on the end points of the roof ridge . The building erected in the 17th century by Pierre de Méan forms the three-axis middle section of the building on the north side. Two symmetrical side wings were added to it in the 18th century, so that the logis was given a U-shape. On the north side, the building wings enclose a terrace with a classical lattice balustrade from the end of the 18th century. A wide flight of stairs leads up to it, the stone balustrade of which carries two vases at the foot of the stairs. The south-facing back of the Logis is plastered - in contrast to the side wings protruding slightly from the wall . It is divided into seven axes by arched windows with keystones , and a dry moat with a final balustrade is in front of it.
Through the main entrance, the visitor enters a central vestibule with a colored marble floor and Ionic pilasters on the walls. A staircase with a railing in the style of Louis-Seize leads to the floor above. On the mezzanine floor there are various salons and several dining rooms, which is due to the fact that the main building was inhabited by several families at the same time for a long time and each of them had its own area. Some of the rooms still have their complete original furnishings in the style of Empire and Classicism, for example a dining room from around 1820. The library is equipped with a fireplace in the Gothic tradition. The furniture dates from the 17th to 19th centuries and was made in France, the Netherlands and Liège. The castle houses an extensive collection of paintings with works from the 16th to 19th centuries, including numerous portraits. They come from the painter and sculptor Jacques de Lalaing , who was an ancestor of the current owners. Two pieces of particular art-historical value are the triptych painted by Jakob de Gheyn I in 1565 and the painting Schoolboy of Emmaus by Gerrit van Honthorst . The castle's art collection also includes a bust of Prince-Bishop of Liège Charles Nicolas dʼOultremont by Victor Évrard and a collection of Liège silverware.
Farm buildings
On the sides of the logis there are elongated economic wings that run north, which can already be seen on the Leloup engraving of 1734. The round towers that were present at the corners of the northern front sides have now disappeared, but their southern counterparts still exist. Both have a kinking, eight-sided slate helmet . The western round tower is still original from the first half of the 17th century. The ground floor of the two-story utility wing is made of limestone blocks, while the masonry on the upper floors is made of bricks. The wings are divided into ten axes by arched windows, with the west wing on the ground floor having several arched gate entrances because it was previously used as a coach house. Today the former commercial wing is used for residential purposes. At their northern ends, the three-story horse stables are connected at right angles. The top floor of each stable is equipped on the northern side with ox eyes , which are framed from bricks. The southern rear of the stable buildings have no windows. Access to the stables is provided by a large gate on both sides, the pillars of which support, among other things, sleeping deer statues.
Castle garden and park
To the east of the castle is a French garden with an arcade and a central roundabout. Statues of gods and a bronze statue of Jacques de Lalaing are placed in it. At the northern edge of the garden - as an extension of the eastern horse stable - there is a greenhouse from the beginning of the 19th century. There is an octagonal Chinese pavilion from the mid-19th century in the spacious park of the palace . A wooden structure with painted panels rises on its brick foundation and is closed off by an octagonal slate roof with a weather vane.
literature
- Jacques Commane: Château de Xhos ou de lʼAvouerie. In: Danielle Sarlet, André Matthys (eds.): Province de Liège: Arrondissement de Huy, Part 1: A – H (= Le patrimoine monumental de la Belgique. Volume 16/1). Mardaga, Lüttich 1992, ISBN 2-87009-487-6 , pp. 161-166 ( digitized version ).
- Luc-Francis Genicot: Le grand livre des châteaux de Belgique. Volume 2: Châteaux de plaisance. Vokaer, Brussels 1975, p. 286.
- Pierre Lambert de Saumery: Les délices du Païs de Liége. Volume 3, part 1. Kints, Lüttich 1743, pp. 186–188 ( digitized version ).
- Marie-Caroline dʼUrsel: Fifty castles bring the history of Belgium to life . Informationsdienst, o. O. 1972, pp. 109-110.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Château de Xhos , accessed June 6, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d L.-F. Genicot: Le grand livre des châteaux de Belgique. Volume 2: Châteaux de plaisance. 1975, p. 286.
- ↑ a b c d e f M.-C. dʼUrsel: Fifty castles bring the history of Belgium to life . 1972, p. 110.
- ↑ PL de Saumery: Les délices du Païs de Liége. 1743, p. 186.
- ↑ a b P. L. de Saumery: Les délices du Païs de Liége. 1743, p. 187.
- ↑ Genicot dates the work to the second half of the 18th century. See L.-F. Genicot: Le grand livre des châteaux de Belgique. Volume 2: Châteaux de plaisance. 1975, p. 286.
- ↑ La Seigneurie de Xhos , accessed June 6, 2016.
- ↑ Information according to the online cadastral map for Xhos.
- ↑ a b c d J. Commane: Château de Xhos ou de lʼAvouerie. 1992, p. 161.
- ↑ a b J. Commane: Château de Xhos ou de lʼAvouerie. 1992, p. 165.
- ↑ J. Commane: Château de Xhos ou de lʼAvouerie. 1992, p. 162.
Coordinates: 50 ° 28 ′ 31.6 " N , 5 ° 28 ′ 31.7" E