Kasteel Van Farnières

Vielsalm, Belgium, Belgium

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Kasteel van Farnières (Château de Farnières) is a castle and spiritual retreat centre in the hamlet of Farnières, part of Vielsalm in the province of Luxembourg, Wallonia, Belgium.

The hamlet lies on old routes between Vielsalm and Saint‑Jacques (a stop on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela) and between Lierneux and Grand‑Halleux, at the edge of the Hodi‑fosse forest, and the site was originally used as a hunting lodge in the 19th century for the family of the abbé de Grat d’Affignies.

Baron Fernand Orban de Xivry, a nobleman who was very active in youth work, commissioned the construction of a new castle in 1926, but he died in a car accident the same year before the works were completed; the building was then finished in 1929, and his widow, Baroness Ghislaine d’Huart, donated it to the Salesians of Don Bosco, who fitted it out with a chapel, classrooms and dormitories so that it became a youth and educational centre.