Where to Stay in Namur, Wallonia

What is Namur known for?

Namur is the capital of Wallonia and the seat of its parliament, built at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse below the Citadel of Namur. Height decided the town. Defences have held that spur since the counts, and in the streets underneath it St Aubin's Cathedral turns its eighteenth-century dome above a grid of grey stone, while the Belfry of Namur carries a UNESCO listing among the belfries of Belgium and France.

What are the main landmarks in Namur?

Namur gathers its landmarks under one hill. The Citadel of Namur covers the whole spur above the two rivers with ditches, casemates and tunnels cut into the rock, and the climb pays for itself with a view down both valleys. The Belfry of Namur stands in the streets below.

St Aubin's Cathedral holds the classical centre, Saint Lupus Church keeps the heavy baroque interior that Baudelaire came to admire, and the hôtel de Groesbeeck-de Croix, the Musée Archéologique de Namur and the museum of Félicien Rops fill the old houses around them.

What is the history of Namur?

Namur was a stronghold before it was a town. The rock between the Sambre and the Meuse carried a fort in Roman times, potters worked the clay below it, and by the tenth century a county had gathered around the castle on the spur. Position was both fortune and curse.

Whoever held Namur held the Meuse corridor, so the place passed through the hands of Flanders, Burgundy, Spain, Austria and France in turn, and every master rebuilt the walls higher. Vauban took the city for Louis XIV and redesigned the defences, and the Dutch and the Austrians altered them again afterwards. The citadel reached its final shape in the nineteenth century, by which time the guns had already outgrown it.

Both world wars came up the same corridor. The town was shelled twice over, and the fortress was demilitarised and handed to the public once the fighting was done. Namur took a different part after that, as the seat of the Walloon parliament and government, so an old garrison city now works as an administrative capital with the Ardennes at its back.

Where is Namur?

Namur stands at the point where the Sambre runs into the Meuse, at the head of the Ardennes. Limestone cliffs press the two rivers together and the citadel rock rises between them, which is why the town stretches along its banks rather than spreading outward. Hills begin at once.

South and east the ground climbs into the wooded plateau of the Ardennes, while the open farmland of the Hesbaye runs north beyond the Meuse toward Brussels.

What is the climate of Namur?

The Ardennes settle the weather at Namur. Rain carried in from the Atlantic banks up against the plateau immediately south of the town, which leaves Namur itself on the gentler side of that divide, with mild wet winters and warm broken summers. The rivers rise in winter.

Water off the Ardennes pushes the Meuse up its quays most years, and fog lies in the valley on cold mornings while the citadel above it stands in clear air.

How do you get to Namur?

Namur lies on the railway from Brussels to Luxembourg, about an hour from the capital. Trains along the Meuse valley link it to Liège and Charleroi, and the station stands a few minutes north of the old town on the Sambre side of the water. Boats still work the rivers.

Barges lock down the Meuse toward the Netherlands and up the Sambre toward France, while the motorway crosses the valley just north of the built-up area.