The Fortifications Trail

Even though the castle today bears little resemblance to that of 1096, it is well worth visiting as the presence of Duke Godfrey can still be sensed: a strange feeling pervades you as you stroll through the ruins, as if the shadow of this great leader of the first crusade could appear in the knight’s’ room or the spiral stairs at any moment… Within the castle walls, the sense of wonder continues when birds of prey rise up from the ruins and perform a heavenly ballet. This show brings to mind an age-old hunting technique: falconry.

Montmédy is a city within a city. At the heart of the fortified town, narrow streets twist and turn around small squares. Artists’ workshops are scattered all around. Above all, Montmédy was a formidable citadel, one of the most imposing in northern France. Charles V built it in 1525 to ward off attacks … by the French. At the time, the region was under the rule of the Austrian Netherlands. The troops of Louis XIV laid siege to Montmédy and seized this strategic site. Having become … French, Vauban gave it its final form. A circuit marked by arrows, with an audio guide, leads you into the bowels of the fortification. As for the fortifications museum, it reveals how defensive systems have developed. This is an area in which men have always shown imagination …

10 May 1940. The Germans pushed rapidly through the Belgian Ardennes and went round the famous Maginot Line. It didn’t suffered at all, except in Villy where the German army bombarded the fortified structure with over 250 cannons. The shock was terrible, but the garrison stood its ground for three days. Eventually, the Germans overcame the resistance by placing charges beneath the domes. Inside, it was hell: 104 soldiers were asphyxiated. Visits – individuals and groups/bookings.

When visitors arrive at the foot of the castle, the huge wall merges with the sky, releasing immense power! Europe’s biggest fortified castle hasn’t aged at all. Built in the 14th century by a quarrelsome princely family, it has evolved constantly. Those who have dared cross swords with it have come to a sticky end, whether emperors or kings. The visit is imposing: this formidable fortress has retained an austere splendour.

Mézières in the 9th century... The quays along the Meuse were bustling with activity. A lot of trading took place: Burgundy wines passed through the city. At this crossroads of the economic world in northern Europe, trading posts and processing workshops sprang up on all sides. The city became rich on 500 years of trade. Many people from Liège brought their know-how to Mézières. Henceforth, iron was to be hammered out along the Meuse. This wealth had to be protected. Mézières took steps to ensure that it was encircled and fortified…

1606. One Louis de Gonzague, an Italian nobleman, wanted to move closer to France. On his wife’s land, he created a new city from start to finish, designed in the Italian style! His son Charles, a worthy heir, dreamt up Place Ducale, with its draughtboard pattern and its fine symmetry. He gave his name to this beautiful city and it quickly supplanted Mézières, which had become dated.

Mont Cornu is a stone colossus that rivalled the power of the fortress in Bouillon. Although the entrance to the castle demonstrates humility, as you make your way around its contours on foot, Montcornet reveals the full extent of its power.

Set like a starfish at the heart of the marshes, where the enemy was sure to get bogged down, Rocroi remains a fine example of a fortified town. Owing its existence to Francis I, who wanted to build a fortification here that was even more imposing than the stronghold in Givet, the city has escaped the vicissitudes of history. And the famous French victory at the Battle of Rocroi glorified the town, impregnable forever. Guided tours of the town and its ramparts are organised by the tourist office in summer.

Historians consider Mont Vireux to be the missing link in a little-known period that has left few traces. This oppidum represents a time when the world moved from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages: humanity changed radically as a result. Guided tours of the camp / tourist office / groups / reservation.

Its paved streets blend in with the stone houses: Hierges is without doubt one of the loveliest villages in the Ardenne. Forming a backdrop, the castle, erected in the 9th century, became a Mosan Renaissance castle in the 16th century, characterised by its red bricks and blue stones. It was destroyed during the French Revolution. On the other side of the nearby roundabout, the pretty village of Aubrives on the Meuse is worth a brief visit…

The quiet village of Herbeumont lies in the shadow cast by the ruins of a once powerful fortress: the imprint of its tumultuous past can still be felt. This superb region will prompt you to look out your thick boots!

Fifteen centuries of refuge: this was the destiny of Montauban. The spur was occupied by humans five centuries before Christ, a place of refuge in an already troubled time: the same held true from the 3rd century to the 8th century AD, when Germanic tribes invaded Roman Gaul. The lapidary museum Located on the fortified site classified as ‘Outstanding heritage of Wallonia’, the lapidary museum is a modernist creation designed by the international architect Constantin Brodzki. It bears witness to three successive periods of occupation from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. The museum houses a series of Roman bas-reliefs discovered on site. One of these, the famous harvester of Trévires, is currently to be found in the Gaume museum in Virton.

Who would think that this charming city was once a major fortress, encircled by fortified walls, backed up by moats and dotted with towers! The guided medieval walk brings your imagination into play: at the heart of the city there were vines, squares with cattle markets and a mill wheel turned by the water of the river Ton. Life there was hectic!

The loveliest place to find out more about the southern Gaume region. It retraces the history of this region where Roman culture crosses the ages to join our own. Children will be delighted by the way this museum teaches.

A real eyrie! The village of Montquintin keeps watch at the top of a hill: this is a high, remote spot. The road leading up to it is steep. The ruins of the fortified castle bear witness to the many attacks that it has suffered, despite its thick sandstone rubble walls. The first edifice was built between the 11th and the 12th century. It stood at the crossroads of French invasions, such as those of Charles d’Ambroise (1480) and the Duke of Orleans (1542). The current ruins date from the 16th century.

Relive over a thousand years of history, revealed by an interactive, musical and … 3D route! Discover unusual objects, witnesses to the passions and wars that kept the residence of the Chimays alive.

quai des Saulx, 12 - 6830 Bouillon +32 (0)61/46.52.11 info@bouillon-tourisme.be www.bouillon-tourisme.be Open all year round from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and on Sunday from 10am to 5 pm Closed on 25th December to 1st January

located at the entrance to the fortified castle esplanade Godefroid, 1 - 6830 Bouillon +32 (0)61/46.62.57 info@bouillon-initiative.be www.bouillon-initiative.be Open : - all year round except 25th December and 1st January - In December, January and February morning

avenue des Combattants, 7 - 6887 Herbeumont +32 (0)61.41.24.12 rsih@skynet.be www.herbeumont-tourisme.be Open each weekend and during school holidays and public holidays from 9.30am to midday and from 1.30pm to 5pm. Closed on Monday

rue des Grasses oies, 2b - 6760 Virton +32 (0)63/57.89.04 mtg@soleildegaume.be www.soleildegaume.be Open everyday from 9am to 6pm

rue de Noailles, 6 - 6460 Chimay www.si-chimay.be +32 (0)60/21.18.46

rue de Noailles, 6 - 6460 Chimay +32 (0)60/21.98.84 www.botteduhainaut.com

This is one of the finest plain castles in Wallonia. Two architectural styles, a priori antagonistic to one another, are combined here with truly unexpected elegance. The medieval fortress, stone-built and sturdy, became a charming chateau in the Renaissance style during the 17th century. Moats, round towers and arrow slits mix harmoniously with the domed roofs, string courses and pilasters of the Renaissance. Now a museum, it immerses visitors in the era of the lords and rural activities that governed daily life in this region of Famenne. The castle houses three museums: • The old trades and daily lives of the people of Lavaux in the 19th and early 20th centuries • A depiction of lordly life in the 17th and 18th centuries: or how the lords of Lavaux lived and received guests in their luxurious residence at the time • The museum of Nature and Agricultural Life: through the seasons, nature unfolds her charms, both in the forest and in the surrounding countryside.

The walls that block the horizon in Rochefort are all that remain of the fortified castle that gave its name to the place. Excavations have revealed the foundations of a square keep, part of the primitive castle of the Montaigus. In the 17th century, Jean Ernest de Loewenstein, count of Rochefort and Prince-Abbot of Stavelot, converted it into a palace. In 1811, the castle was sold as national property: from being a fortress, it became a quarry and was taken down stone by stone. What a sad fate! The castle had a turbulent existence, besieged many times owing to its strategic position, converted into a palace, nationalised and then used as a quarry by pragmatic locals. Today it is a centre of history and archaeology.

Proud of its ideal proportions, Vêves Castle, which was founded by Pepin of Herstal in the 7th century, is one of the finest examples of a fortified castle. In its symmetrical towers and along parapet walk, you have the impression that you can still hear the clanking armour of the soldiers on watch. The Middle Ages are very present within these walls, with the lavish weapons room and the huge kitchen. Along the path leading to the entrance to Vêves, young and old alike can imagine that they are knights…

Nothing remains of the fortress built by the Prince Bishop of Liège in the 12th century. Today, the scene is dominated by the fortress designed by Vauban. A visit to the fortress will immerse you in military history, when Belgium was ruled by the Netherlands and the House of Orange. Eighty years later, the Kingdom of Belgium was to defend its territory in the trenches of the Yser, the only piece of land still unoccupied by Germany. The reconstruction of one of these trenches in the fort is full of surprises…

The year is 1214. By building this fortress, the Count of Luxembourg aimed to control the territory of Luxembourg, the boundaries of which were defined in the Treaty of Dinant in 1199. This treaty put an end to the conflict between Namur and Luxembourg. Building a castle opposite the powerful Count of Namur, represented by Bouvignes fortress and the town of Dinant, which depended on the Principality of Liège, was quite a challenge! So he made sure he had the necessary means. On the rocky spur, he had a huge fortress built, encompassing a town and surrounded by ramparts stretching over 300 metres. Poilvache was considered to be a real “state fortress”, so powerful that it struck its own coins! But its life was fleeting. The claims of the Count of Luxembourg hardly pleased the Prince Bishop of Liège. In 1430, the people of Liège and the people of Dinant laid siege to Poilvache… The castle was pillaged and sacked. The walls were demolished and used as a quarry: a grievous fate for a fortress that caused all the earldoms of the Middle Ages to tremble.

Montaigle: a name straight from the Middle Ages. Standing on an abrupt, rocky spur overlooking the pretty Molignée valley, the Montaigle site is one of the loveliest examples of the medieval castle so dear to the Romantics. Unfortunately, it depended on the Dukes of Burgundy. It was destroyed by the troops of Henry II in 1554. It was never rebuilt, but nevertheless retains all its majesty.

Standing on a rocky spur, the little city of Walcourt has withstood the test of time magnificently, preserving its remarkable architecture. As you stroll through the old town, perpendicular streets twist and turn, bearing witness to the medieval spirit. In the Middle Ages, the annual markets and fairs brought wealth to the city: to ensure their long-term future and their protection, the lords equipped themselves and became allies to powerful families such as the counts of Namur or Durbuy.

1555, Mariembourg, a city of Charles V, fell into French hands, opening up a way through the defences of the Empire. But what did the Emperor care! In three months, Philippeville, named after his son, was built and surrounded by ramparts.

The Sylvia Arduina may be untamed and inhospitable, but it nevertheless remained inhabited. This vast territory needed to be evangelised – so said the Frankish Kings! The hermits were the first scouts. One of them, Walfroy, settled in Margut. He was not alone… A few kilometres away, in the middle of the forest, monks founded Orval Abbey…

Late 12th century… Culture, confined within the abbeys, such as the Benedictine monastery of Mouzon, opened up to the outside world. Ways of thinking evolved and this phenomenon was also seen in art. Whereas the Romanesque is a style of balance, Gothic expresses verticality. The abbatial church of Mouzon was a fine example of this new trend. Only the church and the abbey gardens, in the French style, are open to visitors: the abbey itself has become a retirement home.

35 rue du Ménil 08200 Sedan Tél. : +33 (0)3 24 27 73 73 www.tourisme-sedan.fr

1878. The railway lines were new communication axes that had to be protected at any cost. The fort d’arrêt or stopping fort of Ayvelles was built to defend the lines of Reims, Montmédy, Hirson and Givet. At the end of the 19th century, progress gathered pace and modern weapons soon rendered this new fort obsolete: it became outdated before its time. The fort, surrounded by water, did not suffer an ordeal by fire, either in 1914 or in 1940. The visit to the galleries, the great powder magazine, the armour-plated blockhouse and the watchtowers tells the story of day-to-day life in this garrison of 800 men. Guides tours are available by appointment. It is worth noting that an association of volunteers looks after this heritage site.

22-24 place Ducale BP 419 08107 Charleville-Mézières cedex Tél. : + 33 (0) 3 24 56 06 08 www.ardennes.com

4 place Ducale BP 229 08102 Charleville-Mézières cedex Tél. : + 33 (0) 3 24 55 69 90 www.charleville-tourisme.com

14 place d'Armes 08230 Rocroi Tél. : +33 (0)3 24 54 20 06 www.otrocroi.com

Place du Château 08320 Vireux Wallerand Tél.: +33 (0)3 24 42 92 42 www.valdardennetourisme.com

Lying in the broad Meuse valley, the small town of Givet has linked its destiny with this river. A commercial waterway, in the Middle Ages the Meuse quickly took on a strategic importance. Whoever held sway over it was master of the economy in northern Europe. So Givet became a fortified town! In 1554, Charles the Fifth had a major fortification built here, Charlemont fort. He defied the hegemony of the King of France, Henri II. In the 18th century the inevitable Vauban, architect of King Louis XIV, came to Givet, which had become French by then, to erect a gigantic defensive system around the town. The fortifications, garrison forts and moats were to surround the town, making it impregnable. Guided tours of the town and its fortifications provided by the tourist office.