The old neighbourhoods

Saved from the destructive wrath of German bombings in May 1940, this old quarter in the heart of the city of Nivelles, lovingly "taken over" by those who treasure the structures steeped in history of their city, offers the visitor an unexpected getaway in Walloon Brabant.At the South-West of the Grand’Place and the collegiate church Sainte-Gertrude of Nivelles, the Saint-Jacques neighbourhood remained intact. Its winding cobblestoned lanes will plunge you into a timeless atmosphere. It owes its name to the hotels, hospice, and churches, now gone, that accommodated, in particular, pilgrims en route for Compostela. We also have to mention the 16th-century Renaissance ‘Sainte-Gertrude’ house, with its façade built of dressed stone, and the old ‘Grange Bayard’, an impressive residence in Regency style (18th-century) at the corner of the Rue du Coq.A bit further on, in the Rue de Charleroi, near the Church of the Récollets, the house of the last bailiff of the abbess of Nivelles, a robust but elegant residence with two beautiful 18th-century Classical facades, faces the former episcopal seminary (1608).The former Hôtel du Baron de Taye in the Rue de la Religion, the former refuges of the Abbey of Aywières and the Knights of Malta, the private mansions in the Rue Saint-Georges or the house with the cannonballs embedded in the façade in the Rue du Pont Gotissart are all worth a detour.Within a stone’s throw of the collegiate church of Nivelles, the old fortified tower from the town walls, the Simone Tower (or Devil’s Tower) dates from the 12th century. However, the structure called "La Tourette", dating from the beginning of the 17th century is an elegant building in Renaissance style which was erected by the abbess Marguerite de Haynin, who used it as a country house.Outside this urban area, impressive buildings evoke the rural dependencies of Nivelles: the Ferme du Chapitre in Baulers, the Ferme de l’Abbaye in Monstreux or the Ferme and the Château de la Tournette, splendid 18th/19th-century set.