Château du Stuyvenberg, Brussels, Belgium

Stuyvenberg Castle is a residency of the Belgian Royal Family, located in Laeken, Brussels. It was built in 1725, acquired for 200,000 franks by the Belgian State in 1840, and later bought by Leopold II who donated it to the Royal Trust. It is near the Royal Palace of Laeken, the official residence of the King and Queen of the Belgians.

The first Belgian King Leopold I used the castle for his mistress Arcadie Meyer-Claret, and their second child Arthur was born there in 1852. Later, it was the birthplace of King Baudouin in 1930 and Albert II in 1934; both spent their early years at Stuyvenberg. After World War II Elisabeth of Bavaria, widow of King Albert I, lived at the castle until her death in 1965. Subsequently it was used for almost three decades as a guest house for foreign dignitaries. From 1998 to 2014 Queen Fabiola, widow of King Baudouin, called it her home. She died at Stuyvenberg on December 5, 2014.

The residence has also been home to Princess Astrid of Belgium, the sister of the current King Philippe.

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Visby Cathedral

Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.

Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.

There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.

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