Must-see attractions in Wallonia

  • Château de Bouillon

    The Ardennes

    Slouching like a great grey dragon high on Bouillon's central rocky ridge, Belgium’s finest feudal castle-ruin harks back to AD 988, but it's especially…

  • Collégiale Ste-Gertrude

    Wallonia

    This 11th-century church was part of one of Europe’s foremost abbeys, founded in 648. It's 102m long with a soaring multilevel western facade topped with…

  • Pairi Daiza

    Wallonia

    Set on the grounds of a former Cistercian Abbey, this 65-hectare park is home to more than 5000 animals (including pandas, koalas, gorillas and lemurs)…

  • Bastogne War Museum

    The Ardennes

    This highly recommended modern museum takes you into the heart of WWII, with an audio guide featuring four imagined voices of civilian and military…

  • Mons Memorial Museum

    Wallonia

    This superb museum mostly covers Mons' experience of the two world wars, though the constant sieges of this town's turbulent history are also mentioned…

  • Citadelle de Namur

    Namur

    Dominating the town, Namur's mighty fortress covers a whole hilltop with ramparts, tunnels and grey walls. What you see now is more 19th and 20th century…

  • Blégny Mine

    The Ardennes

    For one of the best industrial-experience tours you'll find anywhere, don a hard hat, jump in the cage lift and descend through a pitch-black moment into…

  • Abbaye Notre Dame d'Orval

    The Ardennes

    A Cistercian monastery since 1132, Orval's abbey complex was wrecked in 1793 by anti-religious French Revolutionary soldiers. Rebuilding only started in…

  • Musée Hergé

    Wallonia

    The inventive and touchingly nostalgic Hergé Museum celebrates the multitalented creator of comic-strip hero Tintin with an engaging, inventive and…

  • Strépy-Thieu Boat-Lift

    Wallonia

    The world’s tallest ship lift (completed in 2002), raising or lowering gigantic ‘baths’ 73 vertical metres, is on a pharaonic scale, as was the €150…

  • Cathédrale Notre Dame

    Wallonia

    Dominating Tournai’s skyline are the five spires of its remarkable cathedral, which survived WWII bombs only for a freak 1999 tornado to compromise its…

  • La Chocolaterie Darcis

    The Ardennes

    Playing a 21st-century Willy Wonka, one of Belgium’s foremost chocolatiers has turned his modern factory into a superb interactive museum experience. Walk…

  • Fourneau St-Michel

    The Ardennes

    Some 10km north of St-Hubert towards attractive Nassogne village, Fourneau St-Michel is a superb open-air museum featuring around 50 historic buildings…

  • Hougoumont

    Wallonia

    This classic fortified farm is around 20 minutes’ walk southwest of the Butte du Lion. Had Napoleon broken through here early in the battle, everything…

  • La Boverie

    Liège

    South of Liège's centre, this excellent gallery hosts many high-profile temporary exhibitions but always shows elements of its own fabulous art collection…

  • Hôpital Notre-Dame à la Rose

    Wallonia

    Founded in 1242, this is Belgium’s only medieval convent-farm-hospital complex to have survived reasonably intact. Laboriously restored, it demonstrates…

  • Grand Curtius

    Liège

    Splendid Grand Curtius unites four disparate museum collections in the former mansion-warehouse of a 16th-century Liège arms dealer. The building's red…

  • Memorial 1815

    Wallonia

    Inaugurated for the 2015 bicentenary, this showpiece underground museum and visitor centre at the battlefield gives some detail on the background to…

  • Musée de la Photographie

    Wallonia

    One of Europe’s biggest and most impressive photography museums, it has an engrossing collection of historic, contemporary and artistic prints. Don’t miss…

  • Brasserie à Vapeur

    Wallonia

    Started in 1785, this tiny affair is Belgium’s last traditional steam-operated brewery. This wonderfully authentic family enterprise is best known for its…

  • Parc d’Enghien

    Wallonia

    Originally set out in the 17th century by the dukes of Arenberg, the Parc d’Enghien incorporates vast stands of woodland, fountains, statues, a tiny …

  • Église St-Jacques

    Liège

    Arguably Liège's most fascinating church, this architectural hotchpotch was founded in 1015 and retains a heavily patched-up 1170 west end whose…

  • Grotte de Lorette

    Wallonia

    This cave system has fewer stalactites than nearby Han, and handling the 626 relatively steep steps is more physical. However, the small-group visits give…

  • Liège-Guillemins Train Station

    Liège

    Liège's main train station, around 2km south of the centre, is an incredible 2009 icon designed by Santiago Calatrava. Great for semi-abstract landscape…

  • Rochehaut

    The Ardennes

    The scenery west of Bouillon reaches a memorable climax at Rochehaut, where a long balcony surveys a glorious view down across a perfect river curl…

  • Grand Place

    Wallonia

    Tournai’s gorgeous triangular main square is ringed with cafes in fine gable-fronted guildhouses merrily flying guild banners. Kids play in ‘dare-you’…

  • Église St-Loup

    Namur

    Baudelaire reputedly described this remarkable baroque church as a ‘sinister and gallant marvel’. With purple marble columns, black stone arches,…

  • Pont des Trous

    Wallonia

    Dating from the 13th century, this photogenic fortified bridge defended the city and was also used for toll collections. Partially destroyed in WWII, it…

  • Abbaye de Stavelot

    The Ardennes

    The once-gigantic church of the Stavelot-Malmédy prince-abbots was destroyed in the aftermath of the French Revolution. But behind the archaeological…

  • Val St-Lambert

    The Ardennes

    One of the world's best-known glassworks in the 19th and 20th centuries, Val St-Lambert has made lead-crystal masterpieces within this former monastery…

  • Abbaye de Villers

    Wallonia

    Nestled in a pretty wooded dell are these extensive, ivy-clad ruins. Once one of Belgium’s biggest monastic complexes, Villers was never rebuilt after the…

  • Domaine Provincial de Chevetogne

    Wallonia

    Around 12km north of Rochefort, this 550-hectare park is a wonderland for families. Chevetogne is set with forest trails, a natural-history museum,…

  • Grottes de Hotton

    The Ardennes

    Hidden beneath partly wooded hills 1.7km southwest of Hotton, the Grottes de Hotton are some of Belgium’s most awesome caves. Sculpted grottoes sprout…

  • Grottes de Han

    Wallonia

    The Lesse tunnels underground for some 8km to form a magnificent cave system that is the region’s biggest tourist draw. Guided visits (English often…

  • Château de Modave

    The Ardennes

    Few of Belgium’s numerous castles have an interior that beats the memorable Château de Modave. The most arresting of the well-preserved 1673 stucco…

  • Institut Zoologique

    Liège

    Built in 1888, this palatial building has a deep-eyed bust of Darwin on its central pediment, best spotted from the river-ferry as it approaches the Pôle…

  • Botrange Nature Centre

    The Ardennes

    A possible starting point for hikes, this impressive information centre 200m west of the Eupen–Bütenbach road has a big hooded fire hearth, a cafe serving…

  • Espace Chimay

    Wallonia

    Chimay’s world-famous Trappist beers have been brewed since the 1860s at austere Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont, 9km south of Chimay. There are no brewery…

  • Radhadesh

    The Ardennes

    About 4km west of Durbuy, the photogenic Château de Petite Somme is a 13th-century structure with appealing neo-Gothic additions. However, touring the…

  • Brasserie d'Achouffe

    The Ardennes

    Some of the Ardennes’ best beers are brewed by rapidly expanding La Chouffe ('The Gnome'). The name, and hence the cartoon figures on each label, is a…

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