The Château de Longchamps has the merit of being one of the rare residences of importance from the First Empire period (1810) that existed in Belgium, at a time when in the former Pays de Liège, the Louis XVI style continued its career. The late Baron Maurice de Sélys-Longchamps, a great lover of art, had furnished this castle in harmony with the time of its construction. The rectangular main building imposes its horizontal lines. A peristyle, roofs hidden by an attic of thirteen regularly pierced windows characterize it. A large park has preserved the testimony of its past grandeur in this house. Longchamps was built for Michel-Laurent de Sélys (1759-1837), who was president of the new municipal administration of Liège in 1795, the year of the reunion of the principality of Liège with France, and mayor in 1800, under the Consulate. Beautiful feasts were held there in the time of the Emperor. Michel Laurent de Sélys Longchamps had married Marie Denise Gandolphe, born in Paris on March 19, 1777 and died at the Château de Longchamps under the Second Empire, on October 28, 1857. Marie Denise was the daughter of Mathieu Joseph Gandolphe and Denise Jacqueline d'Aran des Castans. She often resided in Paris under the Empire. It is she who, in a group of porcelain from France kept at the Château de Longchamps, appears on her mother's lap. We probably owe him the acquisition of another ceramic decorating this house a terracotta copy of the hermaphrodite Borghese, executed in Paris, dated year X and signed by Henri-Joseph Rutxhiel (Lierneux, 1775 Paris, 1837 ), statuary of the Empire.
Translated by Google •
In the know? Log-in to add a tip for other adventurers!