At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Duke of Brabant, Hendrik I, settled in Tervuren. His castle was located on the headland between the confluence of the Maelbeek and the Voer. The "castle of Tervuren" would mainly serve as a base for hunting. When Albrecht and Isabella became governors of the Southern Netherlands in 1599, the castle was embellished as a country residence for the couple. In the same period, the Chapel of Saint Huburtus was built, just south-east of the castle. In the eighteenth century, the castle under Charles de Lorraine was converted into a summer residence for the last time. The original checkerboard pattern of de warande, which lies to the east of the castle, was changed to a star-shaped pattern, which still exists today. Seven avenues in the forest converge at a central point.
By an imperial decree of Joseph II , the ducal castle was demolished in 1782. The then governor, Maria Christina of Austria, will, however, have a new castle built in Laeken. The impetus for the construction of the current park came with the World Exhibition of 1897, in which the colonial section took place in Tervuren. In 1895, Avenue de Tervueren was built to connect the park with Brussels. In the Warande Congolese villages were constructed and populated with Congolese during the World Exhibition. Leopold II had the Africa Palace built as an exhibition space on the ruins of the pavilion that burned down in 1879. Due to limited capacity, the construction of a new Colonial Museum, now known as the Royal Museum for Central Africa, started in 1905.[1] In 1911 it was inaugurated by the new king, Albert I. A year later, the entire domain was transferred as a public park to the then services of Waters en Bossen.