The Once-upon-a-time castle Château Miranda that didn’t get a happy fairytale ending.

It is safe to say that this castle was a wet dream for the whole urban exploration community for years. The castle went by the two names Château Miranda and Château de Noisy. Originally it was called Miranda but renamed in the 50thies to Noisy when it was taken over by National Railway Company of Belgium as an orphanage and also a holiday camp.

Even if the interior now was empty and crumbling apart, the majestic exterior shots were worth the trip alone. Me and a couple of other explorers traveled to Belgium in 2014 to witness the place before demolition. At that time we didn’t really know when the demolition would start but we were in a hurry to see it nevertheless.

Now we know that by October 2017 the whole castle was gone.

It is fair to say that the local community around the castle was a bit tired of photographers and urbexers sneaking onto the property. At least that was the rumors. We had heard stories about mass arrests, damage to parked cars by local people and shooting at the site just a few days prior. So we were a bit anxious when we entered the area through the wast woods. It was raining heavily and we had to encounter a steep muddy hill.

We needed badly to see this place before it gets demolished. So we pushed on, explored it, took some photos and survived. Maybe the heavy rain kept others away because we didn’t meet a single soul. My camera was soaking wet and constant raindrops on the lens made it quite difficult for me to take pictures.

But, I must add that a police van drove past us on our way back to the car.

The castle was drawn by the English architect Edward Milner under commission from the Liedekerke-De Beaufort family and built in 1866. It was completely finished in 1907  after the huge clocktower was erected. The castle was abandoned in 1991 due to high maintenance costs.

If you scroll all the way down you will see a couple of historic pictures from Miranda.

Here’s to the memory of this magnificent castle:

 

Historic pictures

cheateau_de_noisy

cheateau_de_noisy_historic

My album with pictures from this place on Flickr:

rainy day in wonderland