The best walks and hikes around Rixensart

Excellent quality hotel and restaurant

A church that Saint Andrew is proud of...

A beautiful view of the entire opposite bank, even if you go around it completely. A must-see.

very beautiful lake. Must see

The Genval Lake (French: Lac de Genval) is located on the edge of the Sonian Forest southeast of Brussels. The lake is partly in Genval, a sub-municipality of Rixensart in the province of Walloon Brabant and partly in Overijse in the province of Flemish Brabant. It is an artificial lake that was created in 1903 by creating artificial banks around a marshy area.[1] Around the lake are several buildings from the Belle Époque, including the five-star hotel Château du Lac. The area around the lake is very touristic and is home to a yacht club, among other things. nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meer_van_Genval

Bench located along the slow road named Eechelenpoel that both at the beginning and the end dives into the depth as a sunken road, here you have a view and if the vegetation is a bit better you can see the village. The Eechelenpoel path crosses with the Wouwerbloksken, another slow sunken road that takes you to the village.

Le Château du Lac is best known today as a 5-star hotel. Events are also often organised there and that is why I know it from a professional long-gone past. But the building, whether you call it a castle or rather a glorified villa, it does have a fairly intense past. In the past, the mineral water of Genval was collected and bottled here. Together with the source of Bonne Fontaine, the Château du Lac was the true symbol of Genval-les-Eaux. The Etablissement des Eaux, as it was originally called, was built between 1905 and 1907 by the architect Julien Wendrickx, the future production director of the Compagnie Internationale des Eaux Minérales, to house the collection of sources and the bottling of the mineral water of Genval. After the First World War and the receivership of the companies that managed the Genval site, the castle became the property of an English company before being taken over by the Princes of Merode, who leased the facilities to Schweppes Belgium. The Belgian branch was then managed by John Martin, an English brewer based in Antwerp, who had been importing beers from Great Britain and Ireland to the continent since 1909, including the famous Guinness. He obtained the exclusive production rights for the Schweppes range, which he transferred to Genval in 1952 following the deterioration in the quality of Antwerp's drinking water, which was now pumped into the Albert Canal. Since the divestment of Schweppes in 1988, the John Martin group has further diversified its range, with speciality beers (Timmermans, Gordon, etc.), soft drinks (Orangina) and fruit juices (Looza). After the Schweppes factory moved to Rue du Cerf, the château, now owned by the Martin family, was converted into the five-star Château du Lac Source: https://www.parismatch.be/lifestyle/voyages/2020/08/23/le-lac-de-genval-et-ses-villas-2D3Q25DBTVANBFBV5WXJG3R2NI/

Until 1559, the parish of Rosières depended on the bishopric of Cambrai, then, later, on the bishopric of Mechelen. In 1801, the priest P-J. Goossens wrote a monograph of the parish which provides interesting information on the history of the commune. He mentions in particular that hardly any houses were built, only the old ones were rebuilt, a certain number of which are still in existence, made of clay and covered with thatch. The previous church, in the Renaissance style, had been built in 1704, a date which can be read above the door. Falling into ruins, a new church was built in 1844 on the same site. Dedicated to Saint Andrew, this neo-classical rural building was built in brick and white stone according to the plans of the architect E. Moreau. The work was probably supervised with little care, because many cracks already crisscross the walls of the building and the ceilings of the interior are coming loose in several places, wrote Jules Tarlier and Alphonse Wauters in 1873. It was consecrated in 1877 by Mgr Anthonis, Bishop of Constance. Built at the top of a staircase, on the side of an embankment, it already had, less than 20 years later, many cracks. Based on the writings of Tarlier and Wauters, Louis Evrard describes the church: A square tower, topped with a small opening for a rectangular door with a pediment and a semi-circular skylight lighting the rood screen; it precedes a vessel in the form of a basilica with three naves that two rows of Doric columns, supporting arched arcades, divide into four bays. A beautiful barrel vault covers the choir and the main nave; a horizontal ceiling covers the colleterals. The three altars are still dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Virgin and Saint Andrew, traditionally invoked against back pain. The route of the E411 has profoundly changed this view of the Saint-André church in Rosières. Included in a low wall near the old cemetery, the Saint-Antoine chapel is now a survivor. Source: https://retrorixensart.wordpress.com/2019/11/30/eglise-saint-andre-rurale-et-neo-classique/