One of my favourite parks in Brussels

Alfred Solvay, brother of Ernest Solvay bought the land in 1880 to escape from the city, and named it Vijverberg (vijver means pond, berg means hill). At the time it was in a green area far from the city, with a just few wealthy families living there.

Alfred had a house designed in Flemish neo-renaissance style, with an orchard, a vegetable garden and one of the first heated greenhouses in Europe. When he died in 1894 the park came under the management of his widow Marie Masson, and the estate was extended considerably, the family buying surrounding land to distance themselves from the road building that was then going on and building large townhouses for friends and family. In 1905 the house was renovated to make it look more like a castle, and the park was refurbished.

Alfred and Marie's daughter Thérèse married a member of the Tournay family. Marie died in 1917, and in 1921 the estate was divided and the house at Vijverberg came to Thérèse Tournay-Solvay, whose name the park still bears. The area around the park was absorbed into Brussels and underwent tremendous changes with glass and concrete buildings springing up, but Thérèse continued to live in the chateau (installing a lift in 1957!) until her death in 1972. The park was then sold to property developers who planned to build a large office complex on the land. This project met with fierce opposition from local residents and politicians, and in 1980 the area was bought by the the state and was opened to public as a park in 1981. In 1982 the chateau was almost burned down when squatters lit fires on the parquet flooring.

The rest of the park has been renovated:

The old stables are occupied by Centre Régional d'Initiation à l'Ecologie Tournesol, an ecological organisation which organises activities for children and adults.