In recent years, the farm of Hulencourt passed into the hands of Mr Patrick Solvay who had the vision to see in Hulencourt the potential to create a first class private golf club. It was a battle which determined the destiny of all Europe.

Hulencourt reappears in history one more time in 1815 when its courtyard was filled with The English Light Cavalry recovering at the end of second day of the bloody battle of Waterloo where they suffered heavy casualties. Isaac Newton would soon change the world of science, and a small town in America changed its name to New York. Peter the Great was tsar of all the Russias. The plays of Molière were performed at the palace of Versailles in front of Louis XIV. The books on the solar system written by Galileo were now allowed to be published. This was the age of enlightenment, a time of new learning. Hulencourt, now in the ownership of a monastic order, flourished commercially and the courtyard and the layout of the buildings as they exist today were completed in 1680 as the arms above the entrance gateway confirms. On Friday before Easter in the year 1099, this was accomplished, Ide d’Ardennes’ son, now called Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, was asked to step forward and receive from his peers the crown of the first Christian king of Jerusalem. Their objective was to retrieve the holy city of Jerusalem from the Saracen occupation.

A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.Ide d’Ardennes donated Hulencourt farm and its lands to the religious order of the Abbey of Affligem, who supported her sons Godfrey and Baldwin, so that they were now able to raise an army and join forces with three other armies led by Robert of Normandy, Raymond de Saint-Gilles and Bohemond of Apulia. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called 'The Essential List'. Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This video is part of BBC Reel’s Secret Worlds playlist. Ironically, we’ll never know how effective these elaborate bunkers were, because from the time they were built, the castle was never actually raided. Nearly 1,000 years after the tunnels were first dug, much of this underground labyrinth remains undiscovered, with only 1km accessible to the public. Over time, these limestone-hollowed tunnels expanded to encompass underground bedrooms, storage spaces, bakeries, stables, ice houses, defensive galleries and a deep sky-lit hall, forming a true castle under a castle where royalty could wait out anything from pillaging to pandemics. Dating from at least the mid-11th Century, the castle and its subsequent secret chambers were likely designed and developed by the chateau’s long line of lords as an escape against France’s many Viking raids during the Middle Ages.

Chateau des amerois