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Domaine Solvay, named after the industrialist Ernest Solvay, is a public park located in the municipality of La Hulpe in Walloon Region, in Belgium.

The Solvay estate is part of Exceptional Heritage of Wallonia. It stretches over 227 hectares of wood, lawns and ponds. There are more than 450 species of wild plants (ferns and flowering plants), 130 species of mosses and hepaticas, as well as many remarkable trees.

Domaine history
Following independence, the Société générale de Belgique put on public sale most of its land properties, 28,000 hectares, of which almost half are forests, in order to generate cash to finance the industrialization of the Belgian State. Between 1831 and 1836, the Sonian Forest lost 3/5th of its area, from 11,500 and 4,694 hectares.

In La Hulpe, the Marquis Maximilien de Béthune bought 341 hectares of forest, which he partially cleared to lay out a park. He called on architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, to build three warden's cottages and two farms, the Zondael farm in the south (1836) and the Red farm in the north (1838). Then he undertook the construction of the château (completed in 1842), which he entrusted to the French architect Jean Jacques Nicolas Arveuf-Fransquin (1802-1876) and to the Belgian Jean-François Coppens. Erected at the top of the hill, in the Flemish néo-Renaissance style then at its height of popularity, the château, dressed in red brick with lines of natural stone was flanked by four towers of octagonal angles placed at the four cardinal corners and intermediate turrets higher than the whole. The marshland at the bottom of the hill was turned into a pond. From 1871 to 1893, the estate belonged to Baron Antoine de Roest d'Alkemade who extended it southwards to the present boundaries by acquiring the meadows, banks of the Argentine and the Nysdam ponds.

In 1893, the industrialist Ernest Solvay bought the property as his summer residence. He entrusted Victor Horta to revise the interior layout of the château, modernizing it and drawing its luminaries and furniture. Electricity, gas, running water and telephone are installed. A front terrace was built with a glass canopy and cast iron columns. Ernest Solvay had a second castle built near the red farm, the Long Fond castle that was demolished in the  1960s, and rearranged the park. He expanded the estate further, reaching 420 hectares in 1920.

While he was alive, Ernest Solvay left his property to his children. The Domaine de La Hulpe was divided between his two sons, the north part going to Edmond, which includes Long Fond Castle and the Red Farm, and his eldest son Armand, received the château, the bottom part of the property, and the Zondael park which together make up the current Domaine Solvay.

Armand Solvay and later his son, Ernest-John Solvay made significant alterations to the estate giving it the layout it has today. The architect Georges Collin made major changes to the appearance of the château. The turrets, central steeple and the glass canopy were removed; the spires on the towers shortened and the red brick was covered in light-coloured render. The building loses its vertical lines for a lower and horizontal silhouette. Ernest-John built a belvedere with 140 steps leading up to it. A French garden was created on one side of the château, Opposite the main façade, an opening turfed along 800m in a straight line through the forest culminated in a 36m high obelisk topped by a golden sun. He planted exotic species that are still there to this day.

Concerned by the prospect that in the future the estate would be broken up, he was successful in listing it as a protected building in 1963 and some years later, he decided to gift it to the Belgian state. The donation became effective in 1972, the Solvay Cultural Foundation was created and the domain immediately opened to the public. This legacy, disputed by some of the heirs, The result is a lengthy trial in which the plaintiffs recover ownership of most of the estate. Pushed by public opinion and an association of Friends of Solvay Park whose petition in favor of maintaining the opening to the public of the whole park has gathered 32,000 signatures, the Walloon Region is forced to buy back the whole for the sum of 5 million euros.



The castle and the farm designed by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, unoccupied since 1971, are restored in 1982 on expenses of the French Community of Belgium. The farm is partly occupied by a bar, the barns are first designed to host exhibitions and concerts, then since 1999 the Folon Fondation exhibiting more than 300 works of the artist.

The company IBM has had a 70-hectare park adjacent to the Solvay estate since 1973, where its European training center was located, sold in the 2000s and became a conference center.

Fauna
The fauna is composed of roe deers, bats, voles, foxess, shrews, soats, polecats, weasels, hares, squirrels and birds like kingfishers, great crested grebes, little grebes, water rails, common pochards, Green-winged Teals.

Ponds
The ponds, built on waterproof Yprean clay, have their muddy areas invaded by reed beds and cariçaies. In summer, more than 20 kinds of dragonflies and damselflies are flying.

Trees


The park (which is only slightly visible on the illustrations on this page) contains in its woods oaks and native beech trees over three hundred years old and more specifically the Decellier pond oak and beech from the former gardeners’ house. There is also :
 * the handkerchief tree, so called because its inflorescences are surrounded by a large yellow spathe,
 * the American Sweetgum, whose foliage takes on a red color then purple very characteristic in autumn,
 * the ginkgo biloba, living fossil already existing in the Jurassic,
 * the incense cedar characteristic appearance,
 * the sugi or Cryptomeria japonica so famous for its venerable specimens in the land of the rising sun,
 * the bald cypress, conifer with deciduous foliage that takes a very beautiful color in autumn,
 * the giant sequoia which was planted at the end of the XIXth century in the park and one of which already exceeds 643 cm of turn at 1,50 m (2010),
 * the metasequoia from China,
 * the Caucasian Wingnut with long fruit ears,
 * the Liriodendron tulipifera to the surprising and sumptuous flowering.

Weeds and flowers


A small stream called Argentina runs through the estate and its sides accomodate high grass vegetation : Valeriana officinalis, Symphytum officinale, meadowsweet, climbing nightshade, hemp-agrimony, water thistle, great willowherb.

Other native plants grow there, such as two delicate orchids, the bee orchid, the spotted orchid, a Lycopodiaceae endangered in the Walloon Region, the Lycopodium.

Remarkable ornamental species are planted in various places of the estate, such as :


 * the ostrich fern Palearctic ecozone : seed plants by scientific name (M) with ostrich wings: it is the beautiful leaves of this fern known in the Walloon Region in a single locality that have earned it this name
 * the royal osmund, found in the Campine, in the Ardennes and in the Brabant
 * Telekia whose large yellow flower heads adorn the edges of the pond of the Longue Queue.

Transit access
NB: All transportation methods listed below are available on weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays.


 * By bus TEC:

The bus stop La Hulpe Étangs, located at the main entrance of the estate, is served by the TEC line n° 366 Ixelles - Rixensart - Court-Saint-Étienne.

Main bus 366 connections with the STIB:

- Flagey: trams  - bus

- Abbaye de la Cambre: tram  (tram stop La Cambre-Étoile)

- Boitsfort station: tram

- Boitsfort ponds: bus

366 bus connections with railway: - Boitsfort railway station

- Genval railway station


 * By train:

- station La Hulpe is located 2.1 km from the main entrance of the estate, via Ernest Solvay avenue.

- Hoeilaart station is located 2.7 km from the north entrance of the domain. From the station, take the Ijserstraat (600 m) to the Brusselsesteenweg, take it on the left (350 m) and take the first forest track on the right (Drève de la Meute) for 1.7 km. The entrance to the domain is indicated on the left (Chemin des Quatre Bras).

- Groenendael station is also located less than 3 km from the northern entrance of the domain, by a somewhat tortuous route (bring a map of the trails of this part of the Sonian Forest).


 * By bus De Lijn:

- Bus 348 Etterbeek - metro Herrmann-Debroux - Overijse - La Hulpe: terminus at the station La Hulpe

- Bus 395 Leuven - Hoeilaart - Groenendaal: terminus at the Groenendael station

- Bus 830 Melsbroek Parking Noord - Zaventem - Sterrebeek - Tervuren - Hoeilaaart - Groenendaal: terminus at the Groenendael station.