The Château Malou was built in 1776 in the neoclassic style by a wealthy merchant called Lambert de Lamberts. The current building replaced a small hunting lodge from the 17th century. One of the owners of the château was the orangist minister Pierre-Louis Van Gobbelschroy, until the end of the Dutch period in 1829. After Belgium gained its independence from The United Kingdom of Netherlands, the château changed owners and eventually passed to the finance minister of the new Belgian government, Jules Malou (1810–1886). Malou occupied the building from 1853 onwards and the building retains his name ever since.
The château now is the property of the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and is primarily used for cultural activities, exhibitions, etc. The château is situated in the middle of the Parc Malou, overlooking the valley of the Woluwe River. There is a formal lawn in front of the château and beyond there is a small lake with swans and ducks.
References:The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
The first records of a castle built by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. The fortress changed its name to Koenigsburg (royal castle) around 1157. The castle was handed over to the Tiersteins by the Habsburgs following its destruction in 1462. They rebuilt and enlarged it, installing a defensive system designed to withstand artillery fire.
The fortification work accomplished over the 15th century did not suffice to keep the Swedish artillery at bay during the Thirty Years War, and the defences were overrun.