Château Bilquin de Cartier

Charleroi, Belgium, Belgium

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The Château Bilquin de Cartier, also known as Cartier Castle, is a historic 17th‑ and 18th‑century manor house in Marchienne‑au‑Pont, a district of Charleroi in Hainaut, Belgium, situated on the banks of the Sambre river where a former seigneurial manor (destroyed in 1554) once stood.

Originally built around 1635 by the Honoré family, the château was acquired and enlarged in the late 17th century by Guillaume Bilquin, a wealthy forge owner, and from 1725 became the family seat of the de Cartier line for more than two centuries, a family closely linked to the writer Marguerite Yourcenar. 

After being bought by the municipality of Marchienne‑au‑Pont in 1938, the remaining buildings were partially renovated and used for communal services until the château was officially classified as a monument in 1980 and fully restored in the 1990s, with the southern wing later demolished to create an entrance for the De Cartier metro station.

Today the listed castle retains its honor courtyard, gate porch and two main living wings built in brick and limestone, and houses on the ground floor the Marguerite Yourcenar library (with a Turkish‑language section) and on the first floor administrative offices of the Walloon Region, while the courtyard is open to the public as part of the municipal park.