Gaasbeek Castle

Introduction
The Gaasbeek Castle Estate is all that remains of Gaasbeek manor, founded in 1236 by the Duke of Brabant. Its most famous owner was undoubtedly Lamoraal, Count of Egmond, who bought the castle in 1565, three years before his dramatic execution. Renaat van Renesse, Count of Warfusée, owes his fame to a conspiracy against Spanish rule. At the end of the 17th century the manor came into the possession of Louis Alexander Scockaert, Count of Tirimont. Marital ties with the Arconati Visconti family resulted in the inheritance falling into the hands of this Milanese dynasty. The last marquise, Arconati Visconti, was a Frenchwoman, born Marie Peyrat. She died in 1923.

The building
The first fortified stronghold was constructed in the mid-13th century to protect Brabant against invasions from Flanders and Hainault, but it was destroyed in 1388. The reconstruction, a few external walls of which can still be seen, took two centuries. During the first quarter of the 17th century, Renaat van Renesse ordered the construction of a French garden, a pleasure pavilion and a chapel in the grounds. In 1695 a wing of the castle was shot to pieces by Louis XIV's troops. From 1887 to 1897 the castle was thoroughly restored in a revival style, and has survived in this form to the present day. Marquise Arconati Visconti employed the architect Charle Albert for the reconstruction work. The interior of the castle was also entirely redesigned. 2004 saw the opening of a new museum wing in which the marquise's bathroom, bedroom and chambre rouge were opened to the public.

The collection
The museum came into being thanks to the estate's last aristocratic occupant. As she had no descendants, she bequeathed the estate with the castle and its contents to the Belgian state in 1921. In 1924 the castle was opened to the public as a museum. It has been owned by the Flemish Community since 1980.
The collection consists of the historic household effects bequeathed by the donor. The heart of the collection dates back to the Scockaert de Tirimont family and remained in the family by inheritance. However, most of the collection was purchased by Marquise Arconati Visconti, who intended to turn the castle into a museum of the Renaissance. The pieces she obtained therefore date mainly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries