Strainchamps is situated in the middle of a nature reserve in gestation and is also considered as a "special protection area", it is a small hamlet in the belgian Ardennes, with about a hundred inhabitants, nestled in the Valley of La Sûre: a fishy river waving in a wonderful landscape with meadows and forests of spruces. Situated on the hillside (between 385 and 515 metres), Strainchamps possesses what everybody calls here the "castle", a huge bourgeois house with a tower.

At the Roman time the village is occupied. Strainchamps possesses several important agricultural land and holds a privileged place along the Roman way Arlon-Tongres, the walker can even see the line along the N4.       During the Middle-Ages Strainchamps is an important lord's domain: the De Strainchamps and the Du Trux become dispensers of justice and do not hesitate to hang the peasants who do not obey their orders.       In the XVIIth century, the Habsbourg from Austria take Strainchamps and the Duchy of Luxembourg . The local tradition says that the empress Marie-Thérèse would have lived in the village around 1750. She is said to have visited the mill and the tannery, built under her reign, and she made a gift of a bell made of bronze...       The maniorial system collapses with the French Revolution, then came the independence of Belgium (1831). In 1847 the new belgian state ordered the sale of the moors and this changed completely the landscape. Instead of uncultivated soil with brooms, heathers, ferns, people discovered more and more spruces; these ones are nowadays so typical in the Belgian Ardennes.      This region, ideal for walks , is nowadays so restful that it is difficult to imagine that it was the scene of one dramatic fighting during the second worldwar. In decembre 1944 Hitler launches the famous counter-offensive of the Ardennes. Decembre 20th: the Wehrmacht enters Strainchamps, but the american soldiers blow up the bridge of La Sûre. Thanks to the rise in the water level the enemy is stopped. Strainchamps becomes the extreme point of the German advance. For five days the whole village is bombarded. On Christmas day the German soldiers fall and the G.I. take over the village.

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The Castle is made of several parts built at different eras. Before becoming a hotel it used to be the residence of a notaries' family who was the richest family of the village.       The oldest part is the barn, on the left of the main building, was built in 1701. In 1861 the dovecote and the central building are built. They added the tower in 1905.       April 28th 1990, Frans and Paulette Vandeputte-Lalande inaugurate their hotel-restaurant. She's from Honville, a hamlet close to Strainchamps, she studied at the catering school in Bouillon. He was born in Roulers and studied at the catering school in La Panne. After having worked together for ten years (with Michel Haquin) in Brussels and then in the luxurious atmosphere of "Le Trèfle à Quatre", next to the lake of Genval, they decide to go to Strainchamps and to renovate their big house in the Ardennes.