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Concept
Château Bilquin de Cartier
Summary
Cartier Castle (Château Bilquin de Cartier) is a château in Marchienne-au-Pont, a district of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium.
Origins of the château can be traced back to the 17th century, around 1635, when the Honoré family builds a castle on the Sambre river bank. The place had formerly been occupied by a seigneurial manor which was destroyed on 21 July 1554.
In 1667, the unfinished Spanish fortress of Charleroy is captured by Louis XIV's troops during the War of Devolution. As the castle in Marchienne was located in neutral territory (under authority of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège), it was used as a hospital for both French and Spanish soldiers.
In 1695, the castle is bought by Guillaume de Bilquin, a wealthy forge owner, who completes and enhances it. In 1717, his daughter, Marie-Agnès Bilquin, marries Jean-Louis Cartier, son of the general treasurer of the prince-bishop of Liège. As such, the castle becomes the property of the Cartier de Marchienne family.
In 1740, the castle hosts Remacle Le Loup, a famous draftsman from the Liège region. It is severely damaged by a fire in 1932, and bought over by the municipality of Marchienne-au-Pont in 1938, ending more than two centuries of ownership by the Cartier family.
Marguerite Yourcenar, a French novelist and essayist, and the first woman elected to the Académie française, is the daughter of Fernande de Cartier de Marchienne, from the Cartier family related to the Cartier castle. She visited the castle in Marchienne-au-Pont in 1956, and mentions her Cartier de Marchienne ancestry and the castle in her 1974 memoir Dear Departed: A Memoir (Souvenirs pieux).
The Cartier castle was listed on 21 August 1980. It underwent restoration in phases between 1986 and 2001 (helped by ERDF), after having been left in a sorry condition (infested by dry rot).
Marchienne-au-Pont JPG01.jpg|Southern part of the courtyard seen from the porch, with the ''Our Lady of Mercy'' church in the background, and the ''[[De Cartier (Charleroi Pre-metro station)|De Cartier]]'' metro station entrance on the right.
Official source
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