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HEX: A PRINCELY ESTATE REVEALED

by Chris De Maegd

Published by Mercatorfonds. 1st. 2007

Nearly fine condition in a nearly fine dustwrapper. The manor house at Hex, known locally in Belgium as Castle Hex, was built around the end of the 18th century by the then Prince-Bishop of Liege, Francois-Charles de Velbruck, as a summer residence and hunting lodge. The house is built in a style transitional between rococo and classical, with the gardens combining French formality with an English-style landscaped park beyond, to make a truly Arcadian setting. Here, the development of the house and grounds is revealed from its inception, through the wars and upheaval s of the 19th and 20th centuries, up to the present day. Large format. Green cloth boards, gilt titles. Colour photos. 223 pages including index.

A lovely copy.

ISBN: 9789061537465
Stock no. 1830250

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Contents

  • Foreword by Ghislain d'Ursel
  • Introduction
  • Acknowledgements
  • 1 VELBRUCK, D'ANSEMBOURG, D'URSEL
  • An enlightened Prince
  • Joseph-Romain and Fanny d'Ansembourg
  • Alfred I Frederic and Gustave d'Ansembourg
  • d'Ansembourg, de Bousies, d'Ursel
  • Line of Succession at Hex
  • 2 THE ESTATE
  • A hunting-seat for the Prince-Bishop
  • Gentleman's Quarters
  • The Ferraris map
  • Star Wood
  • Still a magnificent setting
  • The structure of the estate
  • The Cadastre
  • 3 THE MANOR HOUSE
  • Velbruck's country house in words and pictures
  • Baron de Wal
  • Philippe de Corswarem
  • The hunting lodge
  • the service wing
  • The contributions of Joseph-Romain and Fanny d'Ansembourg
  • Hex and Amstenrade
  • Alfred I d'Ansembourg and the winds of change
  • Architect Chretien Goevaert
  • Gustave d'Ansembourg's reorientation of the manor
  • Back to the 18th Century
  • Understanding and interpreting the vestiges of the past
  • 4 THE ORNAMENTAL GARDEN
  • Velbruck's entrance
  • The New English garden
  • The terraces and front garden
  • The parterre gardens in 1784 and 1828
  • Jules Janlet
  • The changing face of Hex in the 19th Century
  • The new French gardens
  • The Manege, Donkey paddock and balustrade
  • Jacques Wirtz
  • The Small Rose garden and the Chinese garden
  • The Prince's garden
  • Notable individuals
  • The little terracotta statues
  • The service courtyard
  • 5 THE UTILITY GARDENS
  • The Kitchen garden
  • A nomination for the kitchen garden
  • Velbruck's kitchen garden
  • The kitchen garden plans
  • The King's gardener
  • The fruit listed on the kitchen garden plans
  • The Catalogue of fruit and dwarf trees
  • The wells
  • The orangery and vegetable cellars
  • Radelet, architect
  • Changing times bring a different emphasis
  • The Bee garden
  • Velbruck, Venus and Yellow
  • The Inscription stone
  • Apple trees to be grafted in 1790 for Hex
  • The Orchard at the Hollows
  • 6 THE LOST ENGLISH GARDEN
  • Velbruck's English Garden
  • French and English
  • The Way to Zavelbert
  • for the wicker canape
  • for Spitz's grave
  • The Hermitage (or Philosopher's hut?)
  • for the hermitage hut
  • Statues, an ice cellar, and a ruin
  • Back around the lake
  • Joseph-Romain d'Ansembourg's contribution
  • The design for the English garden
  • For Cupid's stone
  • Thomas Blaikie
  • Was this plan ever executed
  • A Design for an arbour
  • The mirror image
  • Arbour or leafy passage
  • Rocks and grottos
  • A 'tall rock with a cavern'
  • The Matrimony Column
  • The inscription
  • the Obelisk garden
  • Exchange
  • the flower meadows by the pyramid
  • The layout along chestnut avenue, also known as the Gated Road
  • A green border and leafy passageway
  • Masonic connotations?
  • An early example
  • Interpreting the sketches and plans
  • Baron de Poederie
  • The plant list of 1791
  • The'bosquet toujours verd' (Paul van de Bremt)
  • The 'motte panachee'
  • 'Die Capzeit'
  • The flowerbed close to the statue of Flora
  • 7 THE PARK
  • A Landscaped park for the renovated manor house
  • Louis Fuchs
  • The laying out of the park
  • Parks designed by Fuchs
  • The lake, purple beech avenue and a bridge
  • From poplar to plane tree avenue
  • The park today
  • The Trees
  • Afterword by Xavier Duquenne
  • Notes
  • Appendices and Indexes

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