“On Monday (September 22, 2008), a famous 800-year-old Belgian castle will be auctioned off by court order to the highest bidder, and it looks as if someone could snag a real bargain.”

On that date, the third and final session for the public sale of the historic castle, Corroy-le-Château, will occur. The castle, situated just south of Brussels, is surrounded by a moat and borders a 12-hectare, protected park.

With walls and seven massive original towers dating to the 13th century, the property’s pristine condition makes it one of Europe’s only remaining perfectly-preserved castles. It has the popular architecture of medieval dark ages and is full of secret passages and mysterious moats.

Inhabited today by the same family descended from the original owners, the castle has undergone continuous transformation over the centuries and has been maintained in immaculate condition, preserving both its mythical quality and modern comfort throughout its 5,000 square meters of habitable space.

The castle’s status as a historic landmark provides the additional benefit of eligibility for government subsidies for any major work. Its majestically decorated parlors, beautiful corridors, bright interiors and sweeping staircases continue to attract touring groups and cultural performers, offering the possibility of dual use as both a residence and commercial endeavor.

A family dispute between the existing owners over the use of the castle culminated in a court decision which led eventually to the castle’s sale by public auction. The first two rounds of bidding yielded a current offer of €2.1 million ($3million), the International Herald Tribune reports, an astonishingly low price in view of current European real estate values.

The September 22 auction session will be the last time that bids will be accepted for Corroy-le-Château. The 16,000-sq.ft. fortress will be sold to the highest bidder, even if it goes no higher than the €2.1 million, a spokesman said.

More information on the auction, as well as a video tour of the property, can be found on the castle’s Web site.

Source : reuters

Summer is in the Air so it is time to redecorate your walls and give them a “luxury touch”. Are you ready for a change?

Casimir, one of the leading designers of his generation in Belgium, has been producing and distributing furniture designs under his own name since 1995.

His designs are characterised by his use of warm, rich varieties of wood. Although his comfortable, sturdy pieces of furniture wouldn’t have been unfamiliar to Breughel, Casimir’s use of surrealism, through some clever optical illusions and semiotic, adds a new dimension.

He established recently the Vlaemsch()-collection. Vlaemsch() stands for Flemisch traditions, humour, design, simplicity, sensible, the surreal, no-nensense, quality and solidity, and combines creativity with the highest level of quality : quality of design and quality of product.

Casimir works together with a team of international designers and Wallpapers “RendezVous1&2” are their latest creations :

Carmen Devos for Tickle magazine said “These “naughty” patterns take their inspiration from those repetitive floral garland patterns which so many of our forebears were exceptionally fond of.

It is only upon re-focussing our eyes, inclining your head slightly to the left and humming the Brabançonne that you may discover yourself surrounded by intertwining figures, salaciously winding themselves around your walls in never-ending twists and turns of shameless sensuality.”

They are both available in three colors (black on beige, red on red and silver on beige) at their online store.
The vinyl papers come in 0.53 x 10m rolls at 70 euros each!

The saga of world’s most expensive house started over at luxuo with Updown Court, the most expensive mansion in the world and the100 Million Dollars Trump’s Palm Beach Mansion.

As a matter of fact, one of our reader, who left a comment, was right : some villas on the French Riviera might be even more expensive !

Various sources said Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and his girlfriend Daria Zhukova have just bought a home in France for $500 million. The home in question, La Leopolda, is an elaborate villa located on the French Riviera… which has become the world’s most expensive house !

A special limited edition collection of the new Stella Artois Nobilis beer (which looks a bit like bottles of Champagne on the picture above) recently sold for $15,000CDN ($14,851 ) making it the world’s most expensive six-pack.

Purchaser AOL Canada planned to share the expensive beer with their employees over the holidays while the proceeds will benefit WildAid, an international non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating the illegal wildlife trade.

The WildAid Stella Artois Nobilis collection is comprised of six magnums autographed by film celebrities who generously committed their signatures for the cause. Angelina Jolie, Kate Hudson, Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson, Bo Derek, Ryan Gosling and Samuel L. Jackson
are among those included in the collection.

Launched in November 2007, Stella Artois Nobilis is a delicate, sparkling beer designed to help mark spontaneous celebrations and it is brewed by InBev in Leuven,Belgium. Stella Artois was first brewed in 1926 as a Christmas brew and and InBev now produces over 1 billion liters of Stella Artois annually.

The deepest pool in the world is known as Nemo 33, a recreational scuba diving center located near Brussels, Belgium which opened in 2004.

It is filled with 2,500,000 liters of non-chlorinated, highly filtered spring water maintained at 30 °C (86 °F) and contains several simulated underwater caves at the 10 m depth level.