Havré Castle is a ruined water castle in the village of Havré in the town of Mons. The origins of the castle can be only traced back to the year 1226, even the counts of Flanders and Hainaut have had control over Havré since the 11th century. In 1255 Ida of Mons was married to Engelbert d'Enghien. Their descendants keep Havré Castle to the year 1423. Then Gérard d'Enghien passes the Castle on to Christophe d'Harcourt. Through marriage, the castle came into the possession of the families Dunan, Longeville and Croy.
In 1518 Philip II de Croÿ commander of Emperor Charles V, became the owner of the castle. By 1537 he was in charge of County of Hainault as grand baliff and governor. Phillipe married on 9 August 1548 Anna of Lorraine as his second wife, a daughter of the Duke Anton II of Lorraine. He died before the birth of his son Charles-Philippe. Wounded by a musket Charles-Philippe was treated by Ambroise Paré at Castle Havré, who was the first surgeon to French King Charles IX and a prominent surgeon of his time.
In 1578, the castle underwent its roughest period with siege by the armies of Don Juan de Austria and the Duke of Anjou. The castle was kept without much damage. Unfortunately, in 1579 a fire was fierce and devastating burning the castle to the walls.
During the seventeenth century it is Charles Alexander, Duke of Croy, who would restore the castle and make it one of the most magnificent castles of pleasure in Belgium, where many royals and famous artists of the time liked to stay.
Shortly after the French invasion of 1792, it was quickly sold as national property. Despite its acquisition in 1807 by the family of Croy, the castle was gradually abandoned.
Finally at the beginning of the twentieth century what was left, the castle due to negligence from 1930 transformed into ruins.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).