Sale deed of the estate surrounding the Castle of Laeken auctioned

None other than Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte himself bought the estate surrounding the royal Castle of Laeken in 1805, preventing it from being subdivided into parcels and sold off.

In the early 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte wielded the sceptre in our regions. Though he mostly resided in France, it befitted his regal status to have a residence here as well. It was while attending army exercises on the Laeken estate in 1803, that his eager eye fell upon the former retreat of the Austrian archdukes there. He therefore not only saved the castle from demolition, but actually set out to restore it. That same year, one Emmanuel Piers, a shrewd person of independent means from Ghent who had already largely demolished the abbey of Geraardsbergen in 1797, had bought the 20 hectares of woods, fields and meadows around the Castle of Laeken in order to subdivide it into plots as a ‘promoter of real estate’. But the newly anointed Emperor of France thwarted Monsieur Piers' plan in 1805. He bought up the entire lot for 150,000 francs, as a result of which it has remained undivided to this day.

On Friday 13 October 2023, at the Brussels auction house Arenberg Auctions, the original deed recording the sale of the estate surrounding the Castle of Laeken went under the hammer for €6,250. The document reads: Vente immobiliaire à Sa Majesté l'Empereur par Monsieur Piers, 15 Thermidor an 13. The date given at the end is the Napoleonic equivalent of 3 August 1805. This is a unique document that reflects an extraordinary piece of Belgium's history.