Walls and Salamander Tower BEAUMONT / BELGIUM description:Around 1041 the countes Richilde from Hainault ordered the construction of 3 castles at the corners of the territory in order to protect it better.
The 'salamander tower', probably used as warehouse for salt, is the most important remainder of these.
it is said - however put into question by historians - that pope Leo IX - who was Richilde's uncle - baptized the chapel.
In 1453 (the year of the fall of Constantinopel), the area came into the hands of Antoine van Cro˙ (decision of Philips the Good). During the 16th century, the castle of Beaumont grew till one of the most beautiful castles in the Low Lands. Charles of Cro˙ had a royal court and an enormous library, and at the end of the 16th century he ordered Adrien de Montigny to make the famous Cro˙ Albums. They were some kind of Belgiumview avant la letter - with drawings of many Flemish and North French villages.
In 1655 Beaumont got destroyed, and added to the prinsdom of Chimay. In the end - the tower got in the hands of a religious congratation, which repaired the ruins.
Nederlands
Français
  
| 