Castles of "Belgium" STOCLET PALACE vs CHÂTEAU DU STUYVENBERG

The Stoclet Palace (French: Palais Stoclet, Dutch: Stocletpaleis) is a mansion in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann for Belgian financier Adolphe Stoclet. Built between 1905 and 1911 in the Vienna Secession style, it is located on Avenue de Tervueren in the Woluwe-Saint-Pierre municipality of Brussels. Considered Hoffman's masterpiece, the residence is one of the most refined and luxurious private houses of the twentieth century. The sumptuous dining and music rooms of the Stoclet Palace exemplified the theatrical spaces of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), celebrating sight, sound, and taste in a symphony of sensual harmonies that paralleled the operas of Richard Wagner, from whom the concept originated. In his designs for the Stoclet Palace, Hoffmann was particularly attuned to fashion and to the Viennese identity of the new style of interior, even designing a dress for Madame Stoclet so that she would not clash with her living room decor as she had while wearing a French Paul Poiret gown. The mansion is still occupied by the Stoclet family and is not open to visitors. The building has received protected status by the Monuments and Sites Directorate of the Brussels-Capital Region, and it was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June 2009. The Stoclet Palace was commissioned by Adolphe Stoclet (1871–1949), a wealthy Belgian financier and art collector. He chose 35-year-old Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), who was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, a radical group of designers and artists established in 1897. Hoffman abandoned fashions and styles of the past and produced a building that is an asymmetrical compilation of rectangular blocks, underlined by exaggerated lines and corners.

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Stuyvenberg Castle (French: Château du Stuyvenberg, Dutch: Kasteel van Stuyvenberg, German: Schloss Stuyvenberg) is a residence of the Belgian Royal Family, located in Laeken, Brussels. Château du Stuyvenberg is situated at an altitude of 56 meters. Stuyvenberg Castle was built in 1725, acquired for 200,000 francs by the Belgian State in 1840, and later bought by Leopold II who donated it to the Royal Trust. It is near the Royal Castle of Laeken, the official residence of the King and Queen of the Belgians. The first Belgian King, Leopold I, used the castle for his mistress Arcadie Meyer-Claret [nl], and their second child Arthur was born there in 1852. Later, it was the birthplace of King Baudouin in 1930 and Albert II in 1934; both spent their early years at Stuyvenberg. After World War II, Elisabeth of Bavaria, widow of King Albert I, lived at the castle until her death in 1965. Subsequently, it was used for almost three decades as a guest house for foreign dignitaries. From 1998 to 2014, Queen Fabiola, widow of King Baudouin, called it her home. She died at Stuyvenberg on December 5, 2014. The residence has also been home to Princess Astrid of Belgium, the sister of the current King Philippe.

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