User:Frieder Leipold

Arenberg Castle (French: Château d'Arenberg, Dutch: Kasteel van Arenberg) is a château in Heverlee close to Leuven in Belgium. It is surrounded by a park.

History


The site had been the castle of the lords of Heverlee since the 12th century, but this family became impoverished and had to sell the site in 1445 to the Croÿ family from Picardy. Antoine I de Croÿ demolished the medieval castle and started works to build the current château in 1455 on the site, of which he destroyed all but one tower. His grandson, William de Croÿ, completed the works on the château in 1519. The architectural style is in large part traditionally Flemish, with sandstone window frames and brick walls, though it has been structurally altered since 1519 and has elements of Gothic, Renaissance, and Neo Gothic architecture. Its large corner towers are typical, once surmounted by a German eagle.

Furniture
About the furniture little is known (see also the section "Ceremonial Beds"). It seems as if the walls in the gallery were panelled with wood. An interesting aspect is a structure within the chapel, that seems to have served as distribution unit in the corner and was the only way to enter the gallery.

Collection
The main collection of Charles III of Croy was displayed in his residence in Beaumont in the tour salamandre. Nevertheless he also had bibliotheque with paintings on the ceiling in Heverlee, that maybe was designed to serve a similar purpose.

Global aspects
With its onion shaped tower roofs the palace has to be counted to the residences that celebrated the Power of the house of Habsburg during the reign of Charles V. due to William II. of Croys functions as chief tutor and First Chamberlain at his court. Similar tower roofs can be found in Spain.

Servant´s rooms
The servant´s working spaces were maily on the ground floor, where the kitchen, pantries and butteries can be found. Above the chapel in the attic another room was used for the servants of the registration offices.

Dining
Probably because Heverlee was used as a hunting cottage there are no reported accounts of banquets in the location. The facilities of the kitchen seem to have had a more simple equipment, so that their means hardly fited the demands of high nobility representation.

Water supply
Located next to the Dijle river, the palace was also surrounded by a moat. The kitchen lay on the riverside so waste could be disposed that way. The water energy of the Dijle was used by two mills, one for sawing wood, the other for a blacksmith.

Throne room
In the residence of Heverlee was no need for a throne room. The official reception space was the great hall on the first floor.

Chapel
In the 19th century, the architects Johannes Josephus Claes (1872-1877), Joris Helleputte (1883-1884) and Alexis Raskin (1884-1904) realized the new, neo-Gothic chapel oriel and the neo-Gothic interior, the vaulted corridor on the ground floor, the new oriel in the southwest corner of the courtyard and the skylights and windows with Tudor arches.

Gender aspects
It seems that under Charles III. of Croy the male appartement in the western wing consisted of rooms on the groundfloor as well as on the first floor, while the rooms of the female appartement lay only on the first floor and in the attic. During the reign of William II. de Croy the rooms in the western Tower appear to have formed a vertical female appartement.

Ceremonial beds
A description made in the year 1600 mentions bed hangings in black velvet, dotted with P and A, with a backsplash embroidered with the coat of arms of William II. of Croy´s first wife Anne de Croy (1501-1539).

Ground floor

 * Entry (Rooms or items of special interest could get their Wiki)
 * Gallery
 * Taproom
 * Kitchen
 * Cooks´ room
 * Wine cellar
 * Beer cellar
 * Room of the maitre d'hostel
 * Simple hall
 * Small Staircase
 * Knight´s quarters
 * Silver chamber
 * Office
 * Accounting (?)
 * Library

First floor

 * Grand Staircase
 * Hall
 * Tower chamber
 * Kitchen flue
 * Secretary´s chamber
 * Small staircase
 * Sallette
 * Chapel
 * Gallery
 * Cabinet
 * Tower chamber with stove and oriel
 * Heating room
 * Cabinet

First floor

 * Grand staicase
 * Wooden stairs
 * Big white stone
 * Armory room
 * Tower chamber
 * Page´s room
 * Gallery
 * Tower chamber
 * Stairs
 * Dressing room