Château de Vêves, Belgium

A compact stone castle crowned with tall, pointed pepper-pot towers, perched on a green rise above terraced lawns near Celles, in the Belgian Ardennes. It is small enough to take in at a glance, which is exactly why it looks like a picture-book drawing. Vêves is usually described as one of the finest examples of fifteenth-century military architecture in Belgium, built on a pentagonal plan with its towers at the corners. The same family, first the Beauforts and then the Liedekerke-Beauforts, has held it for around eight centuries. After decades of decline it was protected as a monument in 1941 and restored from 1969, and it is open to visitors in season. It pairs well with a walk through the village of Celles below.