Tourist attractions Villers-la-Ville

St Bernard laid the abbey's foundations in 1147, but the church and cloister were only built from 1198 to 1209. It was ransacked by Spaniards and local revolts in the 16C, then enclosed within fortifications in 1587. In 1789, the Austrians pillaged t..

At long last, this museum devoted to the most famous of Belgium's animators opened its doors in 2009 in the remarkable town of Louvain-la-Neuve. It presents the life and works of the creator of Tintin, his passions, his influences, the evolution of h..

Consecrated in 1046, the abbey church has two transepts and two opposing choirs. The late-Romanesque west end or “Westbau” is laid out over five levels. Inside, the church is striking for its dimensions and simplicity; note the gracious 15C polychrom..

Among the La Hulpe hills are numerous castles and mansions, including the 220-ha Domaine Solvay. Formerly the property of the Solvay family who became rich in industry, it was bequeathed to the State. The magnificent park, dotted with lakes, is overl..

Seneffe's château was built for the rich merchant Julien Depestre in the 18C. It has a sober neo-Classical façade and main building flanked by two galleries each ending in an elegant pavilion. Note the interior , precious wood flooring (small bo..

This 13C feudal castle , surrounded by woods and reflected in the moat spanned by a stone bridge, was inspired by Philip Augustus of France's royal castles. It still looks like a fortress with its seven towers and barbican. The interior has been alt..

This National Glass Institute museum (easily recognisable by its reddish tinted-glass windows) presents the history of glassmaking techniques and art from Antiquity to the present day. A room on the ground floor houses the Charleroi Archaeological M..

In this church, note the two fine 15C and 16C Brabant altarpieces , a 17C pulpit, a Christ Entombed from 1607, portraits of Villers abbots and the 17C funerary monument of the lords of Marbais. The eleven modern stained-glass windows are by F. Crick..

The KongoloMemorial is a chapel built in 1967 in memory of the 21 Belgian Fathers of the Holy Spirit Order missionaries and 196 other religious or lay people massacred during the 1962 Kongolo revolt in Zaire.

Le Caillou farm housed Napoleon's last headquarters on the eve of the battle. The Emperor's bedroom still contains one of his camp beds and other mementoes. The other rooms display the autographs of French generals involved in the 1815 campaign, maps..

This museum's collections include Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, sculptures and masks representing African and Oceanic primitive art, religious art (sculptures including a 16C Christ on Palm Sunday ) and porcelain. The 1990 Charles Delsemme..

Since the 1968 split in the Catholic University (founded at Leuven in 1425), the French language colleges have been based at Louvain-la-Neuve, except for the Medical Faculty at Woluwe-St-Lambert (Brussels) on the Louvain-en-Woluwe site. The UCL h..

These buildings date from 1759 to 1779. Note the fine layout of the main courtyard, with the former abbot's palace at the end. The pediment carvings recall the abbot's power as Count of Gembloux. The cloister has been restored and leads into a Romane..

This 45m-high mound was erected by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1826, on the spot where the Prince of Orange was wounded fighting the Imperial Guard. It is topped by a 28-t cast-iron lion, which was said to have been made from battlefield cannon..

This rotunda from 1912 houses a huge painting 110m in circumference and 12m high, by French man Louis Dumoulin and five other artists, showing the battle's most striking episodes at the precise moment when Ney sent his cavalry into the sunken path. T..

This centre, standing at the foot of the Lion mound, shows an audio-visual display that takes the audience into the heart of the 18 June 1815 events. A model locates the battle's strategic points and depicts its main stages. The visit ends with a tou..

Since 1815, the battlefield landscape has changed greatly and is now crossed by a motorway and trunk road. It is dotted with historical buildings and memorials, including the Lion Hill, Battle Panorama, Wax Museum or Napoleon's last HQ. There is a ba..

This museum, opposite the Panorama, has a few wax figures depicting Napoleon's last council of war with his staff at Le Caillou farm. The three Allied commanders, the Prince of Orange, Wellington and Blücher are also displayed.

This 50-ha leisure park (1975) is the most popular in Belgium. It offers many attractions (the dizzy Tornado, big wheel, Ali Baba's palace) and shows (trained dolphins). Aqualibi , the huge tropical swimming pool complex was opened in 1987.

This is an impressive 17C Renaissance square brick castle, with corner turrets. For over a century, the estate has belonged to the Merode family. Félix de Merode was a member of the 1830 provisional government. Inside, note the beautiful tapestries (..