As the famed site of healing hot springs, Spa has been frequented as a watering-place since as early as the 14th century. Though other sources of healing hot mineral springs have become famous throughout the world, it is the town of Spa which has become eponymous with any place having a natural water source that is believed to possess special health-giving properties. As a generic term, the word "spa" may also refer to a resort hotel - usually located near a source of mineral water or hot spring - which offers hot-tub or similar warm-water hydromassage facilities.
In 1918 the German Army established its principal Headquarters in Spa, and it was from here that the delegates set out for the French lines to meet Marshal Foch and sue for peace in the consultations leading up to the Armistice which ended the First World War.
The town is perhaps best known today as home to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which hosts the annual Formula One Belgian Grand Prix. It is also the location of mineral water producer Spa.
Dinant is a very nice city between the river Meuse and the rocks.
Most of the houses have blue roofs.
There has always bin a lot of copper industry in the city.
In 1466 the whole city was destroyed .
And in 1675 and 1692 it was attacked by troops of Louis the 14th.
In both world wars the city suffered a lot. In the first world war more than 1100 houses were destroyed and 764 people were killed by the Germans.
In 1940 and in 1944 the city was bombed and partly destroyed.
The Citadel is an old fortress first built in 1051.
It was rebuilt in 1523 by the Bishop of Luik.
The Citadel we see now dates back till 1820.
Very close to the Citadel there is the Tower Montfoort built in 1910.From the terrace of this tower there is a beautiful view over the Meuse valley.
The Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais is a cathedral, located in Beauvais, in northern France. It is the cathedral of the Bishop of Beauvais-Noyons-Senlis.
It is, in some respects the most daring achievement of Gothic architecture, and consists only of a transept and choir with apse and seven apse-chapels. The vaulting in the interior of the choir reaches 157.5 ft. in height, far surpassing the concurrently constructed Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Amiens (138ft-nave).
small Romanesque church of the 10th century known as the "Basse Oeuvre" occupies the site destined for the nave. Begun in 1247, under Bishop Guillaume de Grez, an extra 16 feet were added to the height, to make it the tallest cathedral in Europe: the work was interrupted in 1284 by the collapse of some of the vaulting of the choir.
This collapse is often seen as a disaster that produced a failure of nerve among the French masons working in Gothic style. In 1573 the fall of a too-ambitious central tower stopped work again, after which little addition was made. The transept was built from 1500 to 1548. However, large-scale Gothic design continued, and the choir was rebuilt at the same height, albeit with more columns in the chevet.
Its façades, especially that on the south, exhibit all the richness of the late Gothic style. The carved wooden doors of both the north and the south portals are masterpieces respectively of Gothic and Renaissance workmanship. The church possesses an elaborate astronomical clock (1866) and tapestries of the 15th and 17th centuries; but its chief artistic treasures are stained glass windows of the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries, the most beautiful of them from the hand of the Renaissance artist, Engrand Le Prince, a native of Beauvais. To him also is due some of the stained glass in St. Etienne, the second church of the town, and an interesting example of the transition stage between the Romanesque and Gothic styles.
