Dinant

Dinant occupies a strip of riverbank so narrow that the town is essentially one street deep, with the Meuse on one side and a limestone cliff rising immediately on the other, and the effect from the far bank is theatrical: a row of tall houses, the collegiate church with its distinctive bulbous black spire, and above them the citadel on the rock, reached by cable car or by four hundred and eight steps. Adolphe Sax was born here in 1814 and invented the saxophone, which the town commemorates with painted saxophone sculptures along the bridge, each decorated for a different country, and with a museum in his birthplace. Boat trips run up the Meuse, kayaks come down the Lesse from Anseremme, and the surrounding valley of cliffs and castles is among the prettiest country in Belgium.

History

The name comes from the Celtic Divo-Nanto, sacred valley, and the remains of a woman buried in the 9th millennium BC were found nearby in 1988; the area was lived in through Neolithic, Celtic and Roman times, and the town is first mentioned in the 7th century, when Bishop Perpète moved his residence here and founded the church of Saint Vincent. Its place on the Meuse exposed it to war: in 1466 Philip the Good and Charles the Bold punished an uprising by drowning 800 burghers in the Meuse and burning the town, and in the late Middle Ages Dinant and its rival Bouvignes were famed for dinanderie, cast and finished brass ware sent across the Meuse valley, the Rhineland and beyond (Wikipedia, Dinant).

What to look for

• The riverfront view - the church spire and citadel above the tall houses, from the far bank.
• The citadel - reached by cable car or four hundred and eight steps, with the valley view.
• The saxophones - the painted sculptures on the bridge and Sax's birthplace museum.
• Kayaking the Lesse - the descent from Houyet or Anseremme to the Meuse.

When to go

April to October, when the boats, cable car and kayak descents are running and the valley is green; autumn colour on the cliffs is lovely. Summer weekends bring day-trippers from Brussels and the kayak runs book out. Winter is quiet with several attractions closed.

Before you go

The town is small and essentially one street, so half a day covers it and the surrounding valley is the better part of a visit. The citadel is more interesting for the view than the exhibits, some of which are dated. Kayak descents on summer weekends are extremely busy and more of a party than a paddle. The famous couque de Dinant biscuit is honey and flour and genuinely almost inedible, sold as a souvenir rather than food.

Nearby

The Lesse valley and Han-sur-Lesse caves are close; Namur is up the Meuse.

Key facts