Walks

Extending on more than 50 ha, it has always been a privileged park of Brussels. Designed by the French architect Lainé, its romantic style is described as an English landscape. Because of the difference in level of more than 30 meters, three artificial ponds were digged in cascade in the old site of Mesdael, feeded by the brook of Bemel. This park offers a mosaic of lawns, paths and thickets. You can admire an interesting flora with trees of high size and exotic plantations, such as the giant sequoias and cypresses. The fauna of the site gathers many types of birds of which ducks, swans and gulls, herons, gulls of Egypt.

In the first half of the 19th century, the rural administration of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre didn't have its own offices.

The first town hall was built in 1860 at the corner of the Rue René Declerq and the Rue Louis Thys (the brick building had a stepped gable inspired by the Flemish Renaissance, and housed the municipality's school as well). It was demolished in 1958. The population growth of the municipality during the 20th century lead to a continuous increase in municipality services. The current building's location was chosen on February 2nd, 1948. The contest for the construction of the future building was won by the architects Guillaume - called 'Willy' - Vermeiren and Joseph-Paul Nicaise. The first stone was only laid on June 10th, 1961.

The wing dedicated to culture was decorated by Christophe Gevers and was the last to be built. It was finished in 1971. The style of the building was described as the 'style from Brabant adapted to our era' by the people at that time. It is a typical example of the revival of national architecture in the 1945-1955 period.

The architect chose to reacknowledge traditional materials for the façades: white stone, red bricks and natural slates; openings of the 1st and 2nd floor framed with white stone. The figurative sculptures on the outside were sculpted by Alcide Mathieux. The town hall has a tower of 65m in height and is endowed with a clock containing the symbols of the zodiac and an electronic carillon containing 18 bronze bells which was mounted in 1969.

The Mayor's balcony is adorned with figurative sculptures made in 1964-1965: an allegorical siren representing the Woluwe and a Saint-Pierre with the municipality's coat of arms.

The interior - the lights, the furniture and the metal constructions - was designed by the architect Vermeiren. The Mayor's office is decorated with paintings on wood inspired by the Italian Renaissance, forming a continuous frieze made by the artist Robert Degenève displaying diverse scenes of life in Woluwe. Furthermore, the office contains a monumental chimney with a hood sculpted in stoneware from Brauvilliers, hallmarked by the aforementioned artist.

The origin of the property can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century, but the castle of Putdael as we know it today, was ordered to be built by Alfred-Casimir Madoux only in 1885. This property was transformed into a residence with the characteristics of a neo-classical castle with 3 floors and a dome above the central part, and new dependences. A-C. Madoux conceived the park with its many sculptures. Nine years after the death of Madoux, in 1913, his widow signed a 9 year lease for the castle with leisure park and two meadows, on the whole 9 ha, with the Duke of Orléans, Philippe VIII.

A bit later the Duke of Orléans bought the whole property (12 ha), the park was changed again by flowering up the roadways leading to the castle and to the pond. The undergrowth of the park was decorated by more than 1.000 plants chosen for their good adaptation to dark zones. The worn-off bridge to the island was demolished and replaced by a romantic bridge still in existence today.

The second World War lead to a new exodus by the inhabitants of the Manoir d'Anjou: the duke and the duchess of Guise, the Count and the Countess of Paris left Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and the castle was occupied by the Germans. Both the earthen paths running across the park and the old stone way which leads from the rue au Bois to the façade at the back, were asphalted. After the war, in 1948, the domain was acquired by the friars of the Good Pastor, who dedicate themselves to education. Since 1987 the Brotherhoods of the Good Pastor occupy the grounds. Nowadays, the park has an area of 5 ha. It is a private property, apart from the school buildings housing ICHEC at the entrance.

The Saint Peter parish is the oldest parish in our municipality. Its origin goes back to the Middle Ages (the cartulary of the abbey of Forest contains a charter from 1164, documenting that the Saint Peter Church and its outbuildings were a gift from the bishop of Cambrai to the Benedictine abbey of Forest, at a request of its incumbent Gérard).

In brief, the original church was constructed in a Roman style and its humble nave was surmounted by a small steeple. Nothing is left of this building, except for the old foundations that have served as the foundations of the reconstructed church in 1755. Up until 1935, the characteristics of a small church in a rural parish were evident in the old building's architecture: red brick walls built on a white stone base, soberly accentuated by angel harps and cordons of white stone. The church was built in the precinct of the town's graveyard. It had a very simple design, consisting of a single nave with two rows, flanked by a polygonal choir in the South-West that was two steps up, and by a square tower in the North-West. The church, having become too cramped, was enlarged in 1936 according to plans by the architect J. de Ridder. He chose to change the orientation relative to the old church, of which he kept the choir and the tower which nowadays are perpendicular to the axis of the sanctuary with its higher tower. The presbytery facing the church was reconstructed in 1724, as it was destroyed by a fire in 1570. It is a good example of the classical French architecture as it was interpreted in our provinces. It was changed in 1784. Two of the presbytery's wings were demolished in 1907 during the construction of the rue J. Deraeck. The entrance is crowned by a sculpted blazon of the Abbess of Forest (Vorst). The whole, presbytery and church, has been classified as a monument since 2004.

This old farm consists of three parts, of which the oldest one might have been constructed in the 18th Century.

In the 1830s the farm was the property of someone called Nootens. In 1855, the property was acquired by the innkeeper Ludovicus Thielemans. The farm was then passed on to Charles Thielemans, who was the Mayor from 1874 to 1889. The property was given to the notary Nootens, before being given back to the Thielemans family. Joseph Thielemans was a farmer like his father and was appointed the Mayor of the Woluwe-Saint-Pierre village in 1904, a position he would hold until 1947. After his death, the property was divided up and offered for sale in 1956. Mister Pelleriaux, a carpenter, acquired several parcels in order to re-establish the green space of the old farm, where he constructed a restaurant, naming it "l'Auberge des Maïeurs" (the Mayors' Inn) in reference to the two Mayors of the Thielemans family. The building was bought by the municipality in 1976. Still a restaurant today, the old farm and its terrains have been classified as a whole since 2005.

This was an inn restaurant located on the Avenue de Tervueren no 300, a walk during which you could have a bite to eat, a drink as well. This was called "Chien vert" because of a sculpture exhibition which probably took place at the end of the 19 th century at the entrance of the Woluwe park under construction at that time. In front of that inn restaurant, we could see a bronze dog, patinated green (piece of art of J.B. Van Heffen). This establishment was then called "Café-laiterie du Chien vert" and had a 2-meters high metal part placed on its roof in the shape of a green dog sitting. This metal part disappeared in 1967, was then repurchased by a public subscription in 1988 and found a place of honor at the top of the front door of the current building.

This house is located at avenue de Tervueren, n° 333 and was designed by the architect Huib Hoste in 1933 for the engineer Gombert. It is built on an inclined and triangular plane and consists of 6 floors. Hoste used "elemantary geometry, cubical volumes coated and painted en bloc, a flat roof with garden". He designed big windows and picture windows as well, to let a lot of light, but also nature enter the house.

It is a sober work of architecture, in which one has voluntarily omitted any kind of decoration: neither ornaments, nor decor, nor cornices. The house has been occupied since 1986 by the informatics company Megabyte. The Gombert house has been classified as a monument by the government of the Region Brussels-Capital Region on March 16th, 1995.

This library was conceived by Michel Wittock and created by the architect Emmanuel de Callatay to fulfill the bibliophilic's passion: the love for old books.

The library was inaugurated in 1983, displaying collections of old books on genealogy, heraldry and topography, was later enriched by adding a library specialised in the history of bookbinding and contains the largest collection of old rattles in the world as well.

The architecture of the building highlights this passion for rare and precious books even more: beginning at the entrance, where the visitor is welcomed by a big book in stone, sculpted in marble from the Ardennes, a work by a couple of German sculptors: Kubach-Wilmsen. And other works of art are to be discovered along the path through the museum. In 1995, the library was transformed by initiative of Charly Wittock and Emmanuel de Callatay: a light construction was built on the roof of the existing building, thus creating the space for offices as well as an enormous reading room.

Private residence realised by the Viennese architecte Joseph Hoffman for the Belgian banker Adolphe Stoclet. Living in Vienna, Stoclet was very impressed by the work of the "Wiener Werkstätte" (workshop founded in 1903 by Hoffman and Moser to build, decorate and equip houses entirely by joining the efforts of artists and craftsmen.)

A. Stoclet appointed J. Hoffman to conceive, to fit out and to decorate his residence. Constructed between 1905 and 1911, it is not only original due to its architecture, but due to the furniture, the decoration, the dishes and to all sorts of accessories, which have been created by the artists of the "Wiener Werkstätte" to suite the style of the residence, as well. Being an expression of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau), the exterior architecture features a rigorous sense of proportion. The vertical elements, such as the tower, the projecting portico, the projecting part on the left cut across the horizontal plane. The main façade is oriented towards a garden that was created according to similar ideas. The bronze statue of Athena was sculpted by the Austrian sculptor Michael Powolny. The bas-relief at the bottom of the window in the tower; the sculpture surmounting the window (three male heads looking in three directions); and the four masculine figures covering the tower were made by Franz Metzner.

Precious marble has been used for the interior decoration, the music hall contains decorative paintings by the Belgian painter Knopf, the dining room is decorated by an ensemble of two big friezes in mosaic, colored by Klimt.

The garden was classified as a site in 2004. The 'Hôtel Stoclet' has been added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in June 2009.

Montgomery - Square Montgomery

We can see the statue of Field Marshal Montgomery (1887-1976), commander of the 21st division of the army in Western Europe during the second World War. In 1951 he became the deputy of the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's European forces. The bronze statue was sculpted by the artist Oscar Nemon and was inaugurated in 1980. The fountain, located at the centre of the square, was a project initiated by the Ministry of the Brussels-Capital Region.

The fountain is lighted by a system consisting of a light generator, a network of optical fibers and lenses.

The school for higher education ICHEC can be found near the roundabout. This mansion, designed by the architect G. Dhayer, dates from 1906 and was the old residence of Baron Coppens.

The walk of the railroad Brussels-Tervueren

This railway was built in 1877 and closed down in 1970, it crosses the municipality from the park of Woluwe until Stockel and skirts the park of the Sources. It is an ideal place to walk for pedestrians and cyclists. A typical vegetation of slope have developed there. This site is managed by the service of the green spaces of the IBGE.