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Tower of Alvaux

Coordinates: 50°37′55″N 4°37′58″E / 50.63196°N 4.63291°E / 50.63196; 4.63291
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Tour d'Alvaux

Alvaux Tower, also known as Tour d'Alvaux or Alvau or also called Saracen tower, is a plain residential tower of the late 12th century located in Nil-Saint-Vincent-Saint-Martin, a village in the Belgian town of Walhain, the province of Walloon Brabant.

The tower stands in the village of Nil-Saint-Vincent, near Mont-Saint-Guibert south of the city of Brussels in Belgium.[1] Alvaux Tower is a tower house built between 1183 and 1217 by Arnould II de Walhain. The land was yielded to him by Bertha, the abbess of Nivelles, in 1199.[2] The tower was attached to Walhain Castle and had connections with the nearby Griffon du Bois Tower.

When it was built it was surrounded by ditches and equipped with a drawbridge. On top there would have been a pyramidal roof. With this roof the tower would have been some 20 meters high.

Today the tower is situated on a camping ground with access to the tower prohibited and to side the site is surrounded by marshland surrounded by two small arm of the river Orneau.

History

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This plain tower seems to have been built shortly after 1199AD for a cadet branch of the family of the lords of Walhain.[3] In 1199, the abbess of Nivelles Berthe sold to Arnould Walhain a wasteland on which Arnould decided to build a large house that was the residence of several generations of Walhain.

References

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  1. ^ chateaubelgique.com.
  2. ^ www.pixelsbw.com Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ Le Patrimoine monumental de la Belgique, Wallonie 2, Brabant, Arrondissement de Nivelles, Pierre Mardaga éditeur, 1998, p. 350.

50°37′55″N 4°37′58″E / 50.63196°N 4.63291°E / 50.63196; 4.63291