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Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Isenghien found its origins in the 15th century as a castle and dungeon built in 1545 on the site of a former mansion. Owned by Marie de Cuinghien, wife of Adrien de Ghent-Vilain, he became a symbol of seigneurial power in Flanders. The estate, surrounded by ditches and a wall of enclosure, is described in the Croÿ Album around 1600 as an imposing fortress, with five turrets and access to the nearby church.

In 1581 the castle was looted by the garrison of Menin before being taken over by the lord of Lomme. In 1582, the seigneury of Isenghien was erected in Barony by Philip III of Spain in favour of Maximilian Vilain of Ghent, governor of Flanders. The Ghent family, linked to the Spanish and then French court, gradually abandoned the castle after its attachment to France in 1646, when Marshal Jean de Gassion took over for Louis XIV. The site, partially demolished in 1746 by Louis de Ghent de Mérod, has only one wing and one farm.

During the French Revolution, the estate was confiscated as a national property and the farm destroyed in 1840. In 1850, a Welsh bourgeois, Alexandre Tripier, built a country house in the old moats. Damaged during the First World War, the castle was rebuilt before being transformed into a theme park (Lillom, 1985–1987), then integrated in 1996 into the multiplexe Kinépolis, the largest cinema in France by its capacity (7,286 seats).

The site also houses the Regional Circus Arts Centre in its park. Among his historical figures, Étienne Poulet (1890–1960), a pioneer of aviation born in the castle, beat world records before the First World War. The castle, now a communal property, thus combines medieval heritage and cultural modernity.

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