Miranda Castle (Château Miranda), sometimes known as Château de Noisy (Noisy Castle), is a neo-Gothic castle in the Namur province of Belgium, near the tiny community of Celles. The Liedekerke-De Beaufort family commissioned English architect Edward Milner to build it in 1866 after fleeing their former residence, Vêves Castle, during the French Revolution. The castle is still a magnificent gem nestled in the Ardennes’ steep and wooded territory.
Unfortunately, it has been fully abandoned since 1991. The castle is now in a very poor state, particularly its interior, which is decaying and wrecked. With around 500 windows, the castle was to be erected with multiple turrets, conical roofs, and other Neo-Gothic elements. Milner died before the castle was finished, so he never got to see it finished. The Liedekerke-De Beaufort family commissioned English architect Edward Milner to plan and create the Château in 1866 after fleeing their former residence, Vêves Castle, during the French Revolution.
Before the Château was completed, Milner died in 1884. After the clock tower was built in 1907, the project was finished. Pelchner, a French architect, continued the construction, greatly expanding the Château. Despite the fact that the shell of the building’s distinctive fairy tale appearance exterior still stands proudly, there are no known plans for repair.
The castle’s owners sought for a demolition permit in December 2013, and work began in October 2016 with the removal of the conical Gothic roof peaks. Half of the gorgeous castle has already been dismantled, but the process was paused for unclear reasons, and the castle is now slowly crumbling on its own. Between the first and second World Wars, it was known as Castle of Noisy because it housed a summer camp for children whose parents worked in the railway sector.
The castle was abandoned in 1991 after the explosion and has been in ruins ever since. The reality is that the house’s vision is intimidating at first glance. When the National Railway Company of Belgium (NMBS/SNCB) took over Château Miranda as an orphanage and a holiday resort for ailing children in 1950, it was renamed “Château de Noisy.” It’s fantastic to cross a tree-lined road in the middle of a dense forest and suddenly see the Miranda Castle’s massive shape.
The 183-foot-tall clock-tower was completed in 1903, and construction was completed in 1907. Originally, Chateau Miranda functioned as a vacation retreat for the family Liedekerke de Beaufort, with its magnificently designed grounds. The château was temporarily seized by German soldiers during World War II’s Ardennen assault. There was additional combat on the site during the Battle of the Bulge. The home was first built in 1866 by Edward Milner, a pioneering English architect who was a darling of the Victorian garden movement. While the work was still going on, he passed away.
His death is a mystery, and the circumstances for his death remain unclear. The 183-foot-high clock tower was finished in 1907, bringing the castle’s construction to a close. That year, the architect’s concept of a Gothic style came to fruition. The castle’s design and architecture blended in with the surrounding terrain to create a sight that could have been plucked from a mythical realm.
The Château has been vacant and abandoned since 1991 when the costs of maintaining it became too high, and an attempt to find buyers for the property failed. Despite the fact that the city of Celles offered to take it over, the family declined, and the massive structure remained vacant, succumbing to degradation and vandalism. A fire had severely damaged parts of the building, and numerous pieces of the ceiling were beginning to fall.
The inside is open to visitors/tourists, although everything is jumbled and damaged. It’s more preferable to stay with the experience of being outside, surrounded by a dense grove, a forest, and a lovely environment, to set up a tiny summer camp and tell scary stories. A fire in 1995 destroyed a large portion of the roof as well as other portions of the structure. The cause of the fire is still unknown, and the family did not want to look into it anymore. The interior’s elaborate ornamentation and other important historic pieces were removed and relocated to another estate.
It has been verified that the owners have submitted a formal request for a license to destroy Château de Noisy since December 2013. The loss of this magnificent castle’s legacy is serious and unfathomable. Concerns about the building’s structural stability prompted demolition work to begin in 2016. The roof was removed in October 2016, and the demolition took around a year to complete. The central tower was the final section to be demolished.
