No one knows who built it. But the Villa des Lapins in the Ardennes is one of the strangest buildings in Belgium.
You see it from the road near the village of Warnant in the wooded Molignée valley. Constructed in 1890 in traditional half-timbered style, it looks like a building you might see in Switzerland or Bavaria.
The façade is covered with decoration, almost like a comic book. You can spot the figure of Eve picking an apple while a snake prepares the bite her. There’s also a man with a picnic hamper and umbrella fishing in a river while two boys throw stones at the fish and make faces at the fisherman. You can also spot dogs chasing rabbits, a fox killing a chicken and three swans on a lake.
A young couple recently took over the building to run as a restaurant. Open every day from 11am except Wednesday.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
