We are in Aubry in Hainaut, a small country Lordship located a good league from Valenciennes, near the Scheldt.

This region has not been ''French'' since the 9th century, following the division of the Empire of Charlemagne. Indeed, made up of powerful principalities, Hainaut – coveted by the “greatest” – keeps the natural border of the Scheldt and occupies a strategic position in the heart of northern Europe, and therefore faces the “appetites '' from each other.

In the 12th century in this Lordship, facing the looters, a small fortified castle was built which took advantage of the marshes to surround itself with protective moats… this would be the birth of the first castle of Aubry.

From the 13th century, Hainaut passed from hand to hand: first to the Houses of Avesnes then to Bavaria, then to the Duchy of Burgundy, and finally to the Holy Roman Empire until the wars of Louis XIV.

In 1494, the future François I, King of France, was born, who always had the project of invading Hainaut...

The young Charles V, born in Ghent, has reigned since 1519 over a very vast Holy Roman Empire.

From 1500 to 1520, the castle became an indefensible and useless stronghold in this province under Spanish rule. Jean de Thiant then razed the feudal motte and built a Renaissance castle, with this Flemish-Spanish facade still visible today, in place of the old building.

Several seigniorial families will succeed each other by transmitting the castle by the women every 1 to 3 generations. The counts Van Der Burch, in the 17th century, will be the great developers of the castle; they will follow one another there until the Revolution… and will return there.

In 1846 began the industrial epic of Valenciennes. Major works were soon undertaken by Mr Henri Maurice to restore the castle and create the ''English Park''.

Thereafter, for more than a hundred years, the castle became for the people of Valenciennes a place of elegant meetings, and artists like Eugène Chigot, Henri Le Sidaner, followed one another in the magnificent park.