Enghien - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

ENGHIEN, a town in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, lying south of Grammont. Pop. (1904) 4541. It is the centre of considerable lace, linen and cotton industries. There is a fine park outside the town belonging to the duke of Arenberg, whose ancestor, Charles de Ligne, bought it from Henry IV. in 1607, but the château in which the duke of Arenberg of the 18th century entertained Voltaire no longer exists. Curiously enough the cottage, a stone building, built by the same duke for Jean Jacques Rousseau, still stands in the park, while the ducal residence was burnt down by the sans-culottes. A fine pavilion or kiosk, named de l'Etoile, has also survived. The great Conde was given, for a victory gained near this place, the right to use the style of Enghien among his subsidiary titles.