On the Kempen Basin, the city of Beringen went through a mining boom that burned bright for a time after the Second World War before quickly fading. In Koersel, Beringen has been left with the largest industrial heritage site in Belgium, spread across 100,000 square metres. Of all the former mines in Belgian Limburg, this …
This city on the Meuse River is in an incredibly picturesque spot, squeezed between the water and the high valley walls. To the east is an insurmountable wall of limestone that has long made Dinant an attractive place for armies to gain a foothold on the Meuse. That cliff is still topped by a citadel, …
Set where the River Dender flows into the Scheldt, Dendermonde is a Medieval city loaded with important heritage. Making the headlines are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, one a Gothic belfry and the other a beguinage dating back to the 13th century. Another of Dendermonde’s great claims to fame is its folkloristic horse, Ros Beiaard, …
This Walloon municipality in Belgian Luxembourg is on a ridge in the Ardennes at 500 metres above sea level. Bastogne is at a strategic putting it in the path of the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45. The Siege of Bastogne of December 1944 was a bloody engagement in a brutal couple …
This city in Belgian Limburg grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded by the devout 7th-century Frankish nobleman Saint Trudo. That abbey was a major pilgrimage site in Medieval times, making the city rich and becoming one of the most powerful monasteries in the low countries. Sint-Truiden Abbey was suppressed and mostly demolished at the …
In the south of the Kempen region, Geel is a city that was much venerated by Medieval pilgrims. This was all for Dymphna, a 7th-century Irish princess supposedly martyred here. She was beheaded by her mentally ill father, who was struggling with the death of his wife and lusted for her because of her resemblance …
On the banks of the languid Durme River, Lokeren is a small city in the East Flanders. Lokeren’s greatest asset is the nature found effortlessly close city centre. From the train station you can hop on a bike, and Waasland’s immense cycle network can do the rest. Within touching distance is the largest nature reserve …
Named for a ford on the River Zenne, the city of Vilvoorde is about 10 kilometres north-east of Brussels and linked to the capital by the Brussels-Scheldt Canal. Vilvoorde gained city rights as long ago as 1198, and for decades until the end of the 20th century was associated with heavy industry. That chapter closed …
Home of the international playing card manufacturer Cartamundi, Turnhout is also unofficial capital of the Kempen region, a landscape of heathland, dunes and fens in the north-east of Belgium Turnhout had ties with the sport of hunting for hundreds of years, and a stag still adorns the city’s coat of arms. The Dukes of Brabant …
The largest city on Belgium’s coast is imbued with a royal flair that goes back to the middle of the 19th century when it became Leopold I’s resort of choice. Belgium’s aristocracy followed suit, and Ostend’s lofty status is confirmed by its genteel parks and regal monuments like the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk and the seafront colonnade, the …