The striking Mariemont Museum is the last thing you would expect to find in the old industrial region around Charleroi.
Located in a landscaped park and hunting estate where a sixteenth-century castle once stood, it contains an extraordinary collection assembled here by the fabulously rich industrialist Raoul Warocqué.
He accumulated thousands of objects on his travels, including a decorated room from Pompeii, a giant Egyptian God and dozens of Classical Greek statues. He also acquired a version of Rodin’s famous Burghers of Calais.
As well as a collector, Warocqué was a philanthropist who supported the local community. His collection was gifted to the Belgian state when he died in 1917. But disaster struck when the old château was destroyed by fire in 1960, leaving just one wing standing.
The collection survived and is now displayed in a severe concrete museum building designed by the Belgian architect Roger Bastin. The museum sits in a romantic park with the overgrown ruins of an eighteenth century château, a hidden temple, rose garden and some beautiful old trees.
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.
