Exceptionally, the bell -to -tap gentlehommme unrolls the green carpet to the first visitors of 2025 with tin bells with a buttonhole, on May 1. On the program? A thousand leagues from the high -coiled targets of the left people, an enchanted walk between walls that received beautiful people in the 19th century, people with incandescent and adventurous lives including the poet Charles Baudelaire. Something to dream as a magician having the turn to make them decline vibrant stories of great gourmet dinners where we were surely talking about travel and perhaps love and girls of joy.
“Exceptional opening as part of the 5th edition of the “family castle life”, Organized by the Walloon Heritage Agency (AWAP) and in which we participate among 31 other Wallonia castles “located Bernadette Bonnier, of the Félicien Rops fund, manager of this place of memory charged with mystery and inspiration.
The Serrurier-Bovy room
Thozée married the intense life of a noble family for more than a century. It would have been interesting to see her at work, in her joys as in her sorrows, especially those of Charlotte, married to a devil seducer.
Cradle of all the devouring passions of the brilliant master of the place, including that of the roses, life in Thozée has something to make our imaginations fantasize.
The volunteers of the Félicien Rops fund redoubled an ardor to dust the proud building and finish emptying the attics. They tied narrower contacts with Mettet: first the town, wishing to make Thozée a tourist asset, the library and the Mettet circuit, including the Rops brothers (Jacques, Philippe and Jean) were founding members of the Union Motor of Entre Sambre & Meuse.
The site managers still worked at the site’s hotel vocation. Since 2013, they have been inviting mainly plastic artists to release their creativity there, thanks to its inhabited silence and its hullant nights. Reason why, in 2024, they set up a second room: the so-called room (Gustave) Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910), its furniture being signed by the name of this Liège architect and one of the main Belgian representatives of Art Nouveau with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde.
The fund, another of its vocations, also continues to perpetuate memory and sift the precious archives of the Rops family. A jumble of documents and letters which makes it possible to better understand the life course of each member of the Félicien line and Charlotte ROPS-POOLET. “A new dynamic is at work”welcomes Bernadette Bonnier, one of the keepers of the place, a volunteer among a host of other volunteers.
Rops and the circuit
A haven of peace. A green and white paradise. These are the images that are best -superimposed in Thozée. However, for its first opening, this 1st 8th (before every 1st Sunday of the month, from June to October), the castle will suggest in the ear a geographically close sound environment but without affinity with the sovereign nature of which it is bathed in splendor.
The filtering of the archives allowed this historical incise in the dominant plant. She feels hot bitumen and burned brake. Enforce by its feeling of speed. It is that of the Mettet circuit.
It is not a surprise: on June 14, 1930, one of the grandchildren of the famous painter, Jacques Rops, had 10 other administrators published, including Jules Tacheny, the statutes of an asbl having for “To collaborate in the broadest way in the defense, the practice and development of tourism and motorcycle, automobile and aeronautical sport.” The founders like thrills with broad spectrum. The Union Motor of Entre Sambre-et-Meuse was born.
For the first time, Thozée Castle, behind a window of paper souvenirs, will resuscitate its filiation with the Mettet circuit in its early days. Two places having in common the wind. This is lovingly sweeping away from his breath the Parc de Thozée and the other, torn by a cohort of motorcycles being made.
Opening from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free entry. Guided tours adapted to children at 2 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. Bar and small catering. Rue de Thozée. 071/72 72 62 [email protected]
www.chateaudethozee.be
Jacques, Philippe and Jean, the three brothers
Jacques Rops, grandson of Félicien Rops, passionate about sport and in particular motorcycle, auto and plane, was the first president of the ASBL. But he died tragically, on March 10, 1935, during a sailing flight training. During its third test, the plane, which was at a height of 5 to 6 meters, stung from the nose as a result of unknown circumstances and fell on the floor while turning. Jacques Rops will have the neck broken by the weight of the glider. He succeeded him as president of the Union Motor his brother, Philippe Rops, who assured the function until the end of 1936, the date of his departure to the Belgian Congo. A 3rd brother Rops arrives at the presidency: it is Jean, who will take over the torch of the association until his death in 1945.
On November 25, 1945, the Union Motor Committee of Entre-Sambre and Meuse, by the voice of Jules Tacheny, appointed Honorary Presidents for Life The Rops brothers so that their name continues to be attached to the Union Motor of Entre Sambre and Meuse. The committee also decides to organize an important race every year bearing the name “Grand Prix of the Rops Brothers”.
When life went there piano
Bernadette Bonnier still pinpoints the restoration of the old tail piano. From brand Pleyel, this old keyboard experienced the time that had all the time of the world to listen to music in the living room while contemplating the calm parade of the four seasons.
1925-2025: the circuit is 100 years old
The founding statutes of the Motor were signed in June 1930. However, he celebrated the centenary of the circuit this year. Look for the error. In fact, the story begins in 1925, on the occasion of the launch of a modest race. “Record day” argued on a small circuit.
In December 1870, minus 14 degrees in Thozée
A single missive can prove talkative about daily life in Thozée. The funds, which benefits from a subsidy of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation as “support operator of the Rops Museum”, panic for his newsletters of detail. He sheds light on daily life in Thozée, as in this Courier de Félicien, in December 1870, which testifies to the particular atmosphere Formerity. “He freezes towards the least 14 ° in the sun! The people of the country find” that it is seasonal time “and that he is not yet” full cold “. What is” the full cold “Lord God! It was 8 days that I have his nose without knowledge” writes Félicien Rops to a certain Edmond Lambrichs.
Artistic workshops
The Château de Thozée organizes several artistic workshops. The one dedicated to painting, with Pierre Debatty, will end this April 30.
The engraving workshop (dry point, monotype and xylography), with Valentin Capony, will take place from Monday 7 to Friday 11 July.
Charles-Henry Sommelette will lead the drawing workshop from Monday, 14 to Friday 18 July.
A silver photography course will also be organized. Luc Stokart invites the trainees to a “stroll of the gaze”, a significant exploration of the park and the castle of Thozée, a stimulating frame where each corner tells a story.
Infos & inscriptions: www.chateaudethozee.be/les-stages/
