castles parks

Parks and gardens

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Coloma Rose Garden.

The rose garden in the former Coloma castle grounds, with more than 30,000 bushes and 3000 varieties, is one of the largest rose gardens in Europe. It provides full-time work for six gardeners.

Meise, National Botanic Gardens.

The Belgian National Botanic Gardens are located in the 19th-century grounds of the Bouchout Domain. The domain has at least 1800 species of plants for you to discover. The showpiece is the Plant Palace, with more than 10,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants.

Huizingen, Provincial Domain.

In the shadow of the nineteenth-century castle at Huizingen lies a domain of 91 ha that offers a wide range of attractions: an open-air swimming pool, sports fields for tennis, football and athletics, a lake for rowing and fishing, and an arboretum. A blind garden has been laid out for the visually disabled. A unique rock garden has also been constructed against the side of a hill.

Tervuren, park and historical garden.

Behind the imposing and fascinating Royal Museum of Central Africa, whose construction was commissioned by King Leopold II, are the formal neoclassical terraced gardens and park of Tervuren.

Hoeilaart, Groenendaal Priory and the Woodland Museum.

Groenendaal Priory was founded by the renowned mystic Jan van Ruusbroeck in 1343. The Flemish authorities are laying out an archaeological landscape here to make the former gardens and avenues visible again. The former priory farmstead now houses the Woodland Museum which has at least 400 different trees and shrubs.