Regionaal domein Solvay

La Hulpe, Belgium, Belgium

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Regionaal domein Solvay, near La Hulpe just south of Brussels, is a large regional park and heritage estate of about 227 hectares that combines a historic château, formal gardens, woodland, ponds, and a notable art foundation, and it is officially protected as exceptional Wallonian heritage and as a Natura 2000 natural site.

The core of the domain is the Château de La Hulpe (also called Château de Béthune), built in 1842 in the style of Loire castles, set within a symmetrical French garden decorated with sculptures and surrounded by lawns, wooded hills, and water bodies that support rich wildlife and over 450 recorded plant species, including large rhododendron collections that give the park its nickname “park of a thousand rhododendrons”.

The estate was originally part of the Sonic Forest (Forêt de Soignes), acquired in 1893 by the famous Belgian chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay, and later in 1968 bequeathed by his grandson Ernest‑John Solvay to the Belgian state, after which it was developed as a public regional domain and opened for free walking and recreation.