Blégny Mine

Top choice in The Ardennes


For one of the best industrial-experience tours you'll find anywhere, don a hard hat, jump in the cage lift and descend through a pitch-black moment into the underground life of a 20th-century Belgian miner at this Unesco-listed coal mine.

The two-hour guided subterranean tours run three to seven times daily in French, and almost as often in Dutch, but in English only by group reservation (minimum 15 people). Tours start with a 20-minute film (English subtitles). You also gain access to a mining museum that paints a bigger picture of coal and charcoal history. A gravel-base playground and tiny zoo, as well as a tourist train (adult/child €5/3.50), mean that there's stuff to keep children busy, but the cafe could be more impressive. If driving, consider combining Blégny with lunch at Val-Dieu abbey. Note that the mine is at Trembleur not Blégny. Some (not all) route 67 buses pass within 300m between Liège Gare Léopold (51 minutes) and Vise (22 minutes).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby The Ardennes attractions

1. Val-Dieu

3.69 MILES

Iridescent dragonflies dart and hover over Monet-worthy lake scenes in the gloriously landscaped parkland of this historic rural abbey complex, dotted…

2. Grand Curtius

6.67 MILES

Splendid Grand Curtius unites four disparate museum collections in the former mansion-warehouse of a 16th-century Liège arms dealer. The building's red…

3. Église Collégiale St-Barthélemy

6.69 MILES

This large Rhenish-style church has twin Saxon-style towers and a cream-and-cerise exterior. It houses a famous 1118 baptismal font that’s one of the…

4. Musée d’Ansembourg

6.74 MILES

Less a museum than a magnificently furnished 1755 Regency mansion with original stucco ceilings and some gilded leather ‘wallpaper’. Its highlights…

5. Montagne de Bueren

6.9 MILES

Several tiny medieval passageways burrow beneath the house fronts of Rue Hors Château. Most disappear into picturesque hidden yards, but Montagne de…

6. Outremeuse

6.92 MILES

Across the River Meuse from the city centre is the gritty urban island of Outremeuse, whose working-class residents consider it a ‘Free Republic’. Their…

7. Musée de la Vie Wallonne

6.99 MILES

In an adapted convent-cloister building, this curious museum takes visitors on an amble through the region’s past, exploring everything from 12th-century…

8. Hôtel de Ville

7.05 MILES

At night the 1719 city hall glows lugubriously in its blood-red spotlights. By day it commands Liège’s charming, if modestly sized, original main square,…