Citadel of Dinant

Castles and palaces

Fortress on the rock above Dinant and the River Meuse – today a museum, also reached by cable car, with views over the town and the river.

Interesting facts

The cable car to the citadel has been running since 1956.
In 1944 a bunker shifted on the slope and tilted by more than 20 degrees.
Part of the site is still used by a Belgian military training unit.

Why visit

Views over Dinant and the Meuse
Museum on an eventful military history
Ride up by cable car

The citadel stands on a high rock above the centre of Dinant and the River Meuse. Between 1041 and 1050 Prince-Bishop Théoduin of Liège had a castle built here. Burgundian troops largely destroyed it in the 15th century; rebuilding began in 1523, and French troops plundered it again at the end of the 17th century.

The fortress took on its present form between 1818 and 1821, when Dinant belonged to the Kingdom of the Netherlands after the Congress of Vienna. Belgian insurgents took it without a fight in 1830, and it was demilitarised in 1868. Dinant suffered heavily in both world wars: in August 1914 German troops killed almost 700 civilians in the town, and in 1944 bombing damaged both the fortress and the town.

After the Second World War the town turned the citadel into a museum. A cable car, running since 1956, climbs the difference in height of around 100 metres.

History

1041–1050 first castle under Prince-Bishop Théoduin of Liège; largely destroyed by Burgundian troops in the 15th century, rebuilt from 1523, plundered by French troops at the end of the 17th century. 1818–1821 present fortress built by the Netherlands, 1830 taken without a fight by Belgian insurgents, 1868 demilitarised, museum after the Second World War.

Special features

Fortress on a rock around 100 metres above the Meuse. The museum shows a reconstructed 19th-century forge, kitchen and bakery, weapons and armour, a First World War command post and a bunker room that tilted by more than 20 degrees in 1944.

Map

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Nearby

Collegiate Church of Our Lady, Dinant
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Former Capuchin Convent, Dinant
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Early 17th-century convent on the left bank of the Meuse in Dinant – a plain complex around a cloister, today home to municipal social services.
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Church of Saint George, Leffe
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13th-century church in the Leffe district of Dinant on the Meuse – with a Romanesque core and historic flood marks on its portal.
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Show cave near Dinant, discovered in 1904 during the construction of a light railway – with calcite cascades and an underground river.
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Leffe Abbey
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Premonstratensian abbey on the Meuse in Dinant-Leffe, founded in 1152 – the namesake of the well-known abbey beer and still home to a community of canons.
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Crèvecœur Castle
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Castle ruins on a cliff some 80 metres above the Meuse at Bouvignes – freely accessible and linked to a well-known legend of three ladies.
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