Castle Miranda aka Château Noisy

History of Castle Miranda aka Château de Noisy

The abandoned fairy tale castle, Castle Miranda aka Château de Noisy stands rotting and crumbling atop a large hill in Celles, Belgium. Surrounded by Forest, depending upon how you approach the building you are pretty much on top of it before you can clearly see where it is located.  Built between 1855 and 1866 by English architect  Edward Milner under the instructions of the Liedekerke-Beaufort family the castle began life as a summer home but was then claimed by German troop in the second world war, at the battle of the Bulge. After the war the Belgian National Railway Company rented the building to use as a school and holiday home for the children of the Belgian railway employees until the late 1970′s.

The Château then provided a set for a television show before closing its doors in 1991 reportedly due to the heavy financial burden of the upkeep and maintenance. Since its closure in 1995 there was a significant fire at the Castle which according to local news reports was the result of youths attempting to have a party in there. The Count and owner of the property then decided to dismantle a lot of the remaining fixtures and fittings including marble and parquet flooring which made their way into the neighbouring farm house and another castle in Italy.

In 2006 a large storm caused further collapse of the roof of the stable buildings and further deterioration of the upper floors within the main castle.

In 2014 news broke that the Count Liedekerke-Beaufort who also owns and currently resides in the neighbouring castle, Vêves Castle, had proposed plans to demolish Castle Miranda. Many petitions have sprung up around the internet trying to encourage the local government to prevent the demolition and to even begin work on restoration. Newspaper reports suggest that Minister Antonio Di Carlo has put the castle forward for the Waloon Heritage list and that the Waloon Administration will be conducting an investigation to determine if the castle will be included. If the investigation is successful then the owner will receive 60 per cent of the monies required for renovation, a scheme which has proven to be successful in other instances involving castles of a similar size in Belgium, however, given the current state of Miranda including recent vandalism and additional graffiti it is unknown as to whether it will be deemed a viable option moving forward.  for a bit more history and photos from 2012 visit my first report from Castle Miranda aka Château de Noisy here.

Our Visit

Visited with Kriegaffe9 and Andy K the last stop on day 1 of the “missing man tour” we arrived just in time for sunset! Having waited years to see this place I first visited around 18 months ago at the end of 2012, I’m really glad I got to revisit this place especially with rumours of an impending demolition. I managed to climb the rooftops again at the rear and we also found our way across the dodgy joist walk to see the twin baths and access one of the turrets both areas missed on our first trip. Thankfully we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting the grounds keeper this time… It was nice to explore this place without being shot at :).

Don’t forget to check out the gopro footage before you move on to the photos 🙂

Don’t forget to check out the first report from December 2012

Château Miranda

Château Miranda December 2012

Enjoyed this report? then check out more photos from here at  Behind Closed Doors Château Miranda

 

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading / checking out the pictures. Leave me a comment below or hit the like button to let me know you’ve enjoyed the shots and to encourage me to keep posting more 🙂

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