Namur Things to Do

Have you ever heard of Jean Legrand, I hadn't, but probably if you live in Belgium or Europe, you may have. He is the Artist from Namur that did the sculpture's I saw in the Square.

They were very unusual!
There were two people, one D'Joseph and the other Francwes, [the Belgian version of Laurel & Hardy], Folk character's from a Comic Book.

Here the pair of bronze figure's were standing over two bronze Snail's, one in a Cage, and the other one tied to the Cage, so neither could escape.

What on earth did this mean?

The snail is the symbol of Namur, and it describe's "slowness."

Evidently the senior citizens are said to speak French very slowly, which is why they have the reputation of moving at a snail's pace.

It looked like people had been rubbing their nose's for good luck, I wonder if they had any?

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St Aubain's Cathedral, is the only cathedral in Belgium, built in academic Late Baroque style.

Rather dull looking on the outside, I decided to head inside and see what it was like.

No beautiful frescoes or anything like that, just plain white, with a richly ornamented frieze of carved fruit and flowers running in an unbroken band entirely round the church.
NO colour, but still the Dome viewed from the inside was quite beautiful!
A marble plaque near the high altar conceals a casket containing the heart of Don Juan of Austria, who died in 1578.

This Cathedral is classified as part of Wallonia's Major Heritage by the Walloon Region.

St. Jame's Tower, is located in the Place d'Armes.
I doubt if you would miss seeing this 14th century belfry Tower, the only one in Namur. It was used in the olden time's to look out for impending attack's.

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The Citadel of Namur look's over the City of Namur and the confluence of the River's Sambre and Meuse.
It is originally from the Roman era, and is classified as Wallonia's Major Heritage site.

A Fortified command centre in the middle age's, it is now a vast park, where I could wander amongst the ruin's and experience 2000 year's of history. I found plenty of pathway's and plenty of explanatory notice board's, some were even on the ground!
It is located on top of the rock, so we drove our car up the hill and around the many bend's, parking at different location's along the way.

In the 10th century, the Count of Namur built a wooden tower, and then other buildings were added, including a wall, a water pit, a church and a new and bigger tower. Everything was built with stones, unfortunately, there is nothing left of these!

Two Tower's from the 13th century and some other addition's from the 14th century still remain.
In the 16th century, The Citadel was like a "real" city where the soldiers who protected the fortress could live, and then, at the end of the 17th century, the fortress and its side-parts had doubled in size, making it one of the largest fortified constructions in Europe.

Napoleon Bonaparte in the 19th century ordered large part's of the Citadel to be demolished.
In 1860, the citadel was used again, this time as military barracks for divisions of the Belgian army, becoming a military stronghold in 1939-1940 when the underground parts of the citadel were equipped with air-conditioning systems, anti-gas systems and armored doors.

The Citadel has had quite a life!

The Citadel is accessible to walkers 7 days a week.
Walk and enjoy the circuits with interpretation boards, and fortifications from
9am to 7pm high season, and 10am - 5pm in low season.

There are two info centres. I found the one on the Square Léopold to be the best and most helpful. The other is on the way to the Citdaelle on the rue du Pont. The map is very clear and easy to follow.

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The Citadelle is a "must" for any one visiting. It is a strenuous climb up it so pace yourself. The minimum amount of time to budget is roughly 45 minutes. It can take close to 4 hours to explore every thing. I only made it as high as my photos show. It is a lovely view over the rooftops of Namur.

In the old town, in center of the city.
Felicien Rops is known for his pornography paints.
Open all year from 10 am till 6 pm mondays closed except juli and august.
It's 3 € for a visit.
Take 1 hour for it.

'Felicien Rops' is a lesser known Belgian artist.
When I first saw a work from him at the museum
of fine arts in Antwerp , somewhere hidden in
a corridor between 2 rooms with masterpieces
I wanted to find out more about him.

He was born in Namur and you can visit a
nice museum with his work not far from
the place he was born. He combines techniques
and all of his works have got the same themes.
Woman , death , erotica
Often combined in one frame. ;-)

The nice thing is that some of the techniques
he used are explained in the museum.
He died on 23 August 1898...

If you take your time , count about one hour to
visit the museum. If your prudish and taking
offense of something fast...this is not a museum
suitable for you.