Chateau de Boussu

Located less than 300 meters from the Interpretation Center, the funerary chapel of the Lords of Boussu is adjacent to the parish church of Saint-Géry, with which it seems to be one. It therefore occupies part of the old municipal cemetery in use until 1832.
Rebuilt at the same time as the church at the beginning of the 16th century, in the Hainaut Gothic style, it succeeds a Romanesque chapel whose existence is attested as early as the 12th century. It was in the vast sepulchral vault built under the central nave that the subsequent owners of the place were buried for more than four centuries.

A green setting, a place for country walks in the urban fabric, a magnificent wooded area, a protected natural site immersed in tranquility and beauty. Completely renovated in recent years, the castle park is accessible free to the public throughout the year.
Planted with trees of various species (plane tree with maple leaves, chestnut, linden,), it hosts a variety of fauna that lives in the wetland, remnant of the ponds that once surrounded the fortress and of the 16th century residence, which is revealed to the hikers behind the site.

This park inherits a centuries-old history that has conditioned its current state. It was particularly shaped by the last Earl of Boussu, Maurice de Caraman. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the latter chose to develop a romantic English park around his residence, consisting of the ancient buildings of the castle and the sixteenth-century gallery. The moats surrounding the castle complex were then filled in. Meadows, ponds and tufts of foliage design a multifaceted garden, crossed by winding paths where the vegetation is sometimes spontaneous, sometimes pruned. A preserved and restored former kiosk, or park pavilion, now serves as a natural observatory.