Location: Namur
Top Things to do in Namur
What to do and see in Namur, Wallonia: The Best Things to do
Take the train from Brussels and in less than an hour you'll arrive in Namur, the capital of Wallonia overflowing with charm and intimate little streets made for walking, shopping and people watching. Around every corner are quaint tea rooms, antique storefronts, jewelry stores, and boutique shop, but don’t let the size fool you, Namur is also a fashion city with classic and trendy deals. Namur must-sees include Namur Citadel, Felicien Rops Museum, Museum of Ancient Namur Arts, Chateau d'Annevoie, and the Museum of Groesbeeck de Croix.
Restaurants in Namur
1. Citadelle (Citadel)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,151 reviews
Reviewed By karanvivek - Evere, Belgium
Beautiful castle .. with wonderful view from every level Best way to explore castle is by foot (walk up), stay at every level (there are plenty of sitting spaces here and there) There are car parking at the highest level and at a level below (just next to Parfumes of Namur shop) One can easily spend whole day here .. there is a museum, an expo and small yet beautiful shop, cafe and train ride, small kids play area and plenty of open space to sit around and relax
2. Felicien Rops Museum (Musee Felicien Rops)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 251 reviews
Reviewed By periandro - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The building inside which there is the Museum is a nice house dating back to the seventeenth century situated in 12, rue Fumal to where it moved in the eighties of the twentieth century from the Hôtel de Gaiffer d’Hestroy. The Museum is located in the hub of Namur at a walking distance from the Cathedral. That can be clearly realized by casting a glance through the two looking boxes directed to Saint - Aubain Cathedral and St. Jean church, very interesting views by the way. The works by Rops displayed in that Museum represent a unique art conception encompassing divers types of slide arts. So, one can see there some lithographs which were published in the Uylenspiegel journal, such as the caricature of the French photographer Nadar and “La politique pour rire”. It’s amazing to realise how in the satirical drawings concerning the series to which the last mentioned lithographs belong Rops referred to the Belgian constitution and blended humour with parliamentary decisions. The “Uylenspiegel , journal des débats, artistiques et literaires” was a magazine founded by Rops himself and therefore the real starting point of his artistic career. His art production at that time wasn’t constricted to lithographs and the proof thereof is the oil painting “L’Entrée au bal”. It’s a striking picture in that Museum at the sight of which it’s easy to gather that Rops’s concerns didn’t fall within the academic teaching which enjoined geometric rigour and perfect identification of forms. Likewise the lithograph “La Médaille de Waterloo” is a striking work particularly as it depicts the army as a mass of absurd skeletons. This work is an example of Rops’s political commitments as it shows a dwarf senile Emperor supporting himself with a cane in the middle of a radiant Waterloo medal . “La Peine de Mort” is also a witness of the author’s political commitment as a contribution against death penalty. In his works within the scope of realism style the denouncement of the hypocrisy of certain people is outstanding. In them Rops painted what he saw. That’s why he was accused sometimes of making anticlerical works, as it was the case in connection with “Chez les Trappistes” and in “Un Enterrement en Pays Wallon”. Both litographs are eye catching as they denounce the perversity and the stupidity of the clergy respectively. The latter should be observed attentively in order to realise the solitude in which the little orphan in front of the grave finds himself as he doesn’t get a single gesture of consolation or tenderness from the other people attending the burial. The painting “Tête de Vieille Anversoise” is in realism style. In it the piercing and scrutinizing gaze of the elderly lady depicted in it is somewhat terrifying. Among Rops’s works somehow related to the French poet Charles Baudelaire exhibited in the Museum one could point out “La Mort qui danse”, “Les Épaves”, consisting in etching and dry-point, destined to be the frontispiece for Charles Baudelaire’s work “Les Épaves”, and “Satan semant l’ivraie”. The last one depicts a frightening scene in which the devil tramples on a freshly ploughed soil spreading away the rye grass that will destroy the farmers’ harvest. Rops was also very skilled in the technique of engraving what can be observed in two sketches exhibited in the Museum which he made to be used as a frontispiece for “Les Oeuvres Inutiles et Nuisibles” 1879 - 1880 consisting of two albums, the first one opening with a naked woman and the second album with the same drawing on the same woman dressed in her city dress. It’s amazing to watch these two drawings which somehow remind of the paintings of the Majas by Goya. Perhaps the most interesting sections of the Museum are the works having women as the main character. In the works included in one of those sections some prostitutes are portrayed as well as scenes in women’s bars, cabarets and brothels. The world of prostitution really fascinated the artist. That section consists of drawings, heliogravures prints, pastels and colour etchings. All the women represented in those works are beautiful as one can see in the following ones: “La Buveuse d’Absinthe”, “La Dèche”, “Le Gandin Ivre” and “Le Bouge à Matelots”. In another section Rops tried to reflect the fact that at the end of the nineteenth century women were often considered as manipulating. The charming character of all women depicted in those works is outstanding. Watching them one can be astounded at realising that women possess whatever is needed to procure for themselves all that they want from men. This can be clearly observed in Rops’s versions of “Dame au Pantin et à l’Éventail”, made each one of them using different techniques though the watercolour is present in all of them. In the fourth version, for instance, the lady carries a knife on her belt and, with a satisfied expression, holds up a puppet whose position calls up its submissive role. The picture “Pornocratés” ou “La Dame au cochon” is perhaps Rops’s most widely known work. It’s a stunning work depicting a lady dressed only in gloves, black stockings and a Gainsborough hat who walks proudly over the ancient arts that are sculpted and set into the marble. Three little cherubs try to seduce the woman, who continues its way guided by a pig. It’s a marvelous painting. Upon suggestion of Jules Noilly, Rops created more than a hundred sketches of lifestyles outlining the bourgeois hypocrisies of the time. In the Museum there are about twenty of them which are splendid artworks that can no doubt be admired by anyone having a bit of sensitiveness. One among the most interesting of them is perhaps “La Chanson de Chérubin” representing a scene in a boudoir saturated with red. That scene is about a vulgar bourgeois singing a serenade to a prostitute who has a vague look and is undressed. Another precious picture of that series is that called “La Toilette” showing a woman of doubtful reputation and morals dressing herself under the interested gaze of a dandy, lacing her corset, her eyes riveted on those of her lover. She reveals herself to be manipulating and dangerous. In the journeys that Rops made to evade himself from Paris and so discover other realities, he also continued carrying out his artistic activity. The most outstanding artworks displayed in the Museum in relation to those intervals are the oil on canvass paintings “La Plage de Heyst”, which is the impression of the atmosphere of a visit to the North Sea, and “Le Paysage Scandinave” in which he used a post-impressionist technique, as well as that called “Vue de Séville”. As far as the rest of the works to be admired in the Museum is concerned, that painting called “Avendre (Les Deux Amies)” is the most outstanding. It depicts two ladies, one of them consisting of a stunning nude comparable to those of Toulouse-Lautrec. Besides, on the day I visited the Museum, 14.01.2020, the temporary exhibition was also very interesting. It consisted of paintings borrowed from other Belgian museums and included even one by Ensor. As one can gather from the foregoing the Rops Museum is a unique art museum housing highly valuable works different from those which can be seen in most museums. Such works are both very peculiar and beautiful. In order to realize such qualities it’s therefore utterly recommendable to visit the Museum and watch attentively all the works there exhibited.
3. Tresor d'Hugo d'Oignies
4. Eglise Saint-Loup
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 178 reviews
Reviewed By Steeve17 - Dinant, Belgium
This church is a jewel box. I particularly enjoyed the sculpture of Mary (on the left side). The church was built in 1621, in a Baroque style. If you are new in town, you should definitely pay a visit to this delightful lady.
5. Computer Museum NAM-IP
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 20 reviews
The first Belgian computer museum opens in Namur. It tells an unbelievable odyssey that leads from the early calculating machines to your smartphone. These days, everything is transformed and transmitted numerically. All the informations are processed by computer software using the binary format: zeroes and ones, and by electronic machines: from computers to connected objects. These machines count because they indeed compute! But they also count because they are precious to explain the history of computing! The Computer Museum NAM-IP opens its doors with a permanent exhibition titled: “at the numerical roots: machines that count”. From Octobre 2018 to June 2019, the exhibiton "Old-inateurs des Sixties" presents mainframes from sixties. These huge old computers have disappeared from the modern IT landscape.
6. Parc Attractif Reine Fabiola
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 113 reviews
Reviewed By travelguideinfo - Antwerp Province, Belgium
Went here after visiting the Citadel! First of all it is a must place to visit if you have e children. The entry cost is €9 but worth it to spend time and relax whilst your children enjoys all the outdoor activities. The mini golf has 18 holes and is perfect as well as a family activity. I highly recommend this place!
7. MusAfrica - Musee Africain de Namur
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 24 reviews
Settled in the old military barracks Leopold, the MusAfrica - Musée Africain de Namur propose you a travel throughout Africa – mainly Congo – with its rich and extensive collections.
8. Cathedral de St-Aubain (St. Aubain Cathedral)
Overall Ratings
3.5 based on 138 reviews
Reviewed By periandro - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The Namur cathedral is dedicated to St. Aubain. In the place where it stands there was a romanesque church which had been founded as a collegiate in 1047, character which lasted until 1559 when the church became a cathedral. From this erstwhile edifice there remains a tower at the west end of the church built in the thirteenth century. In the middle of the eighteenth century the demolition of the ancient temple, as a consequence of having endured heavy damages caused by some floods which took place in 1740, and the construction of a new building were carried out . The new cathedral, built under the architect Jean-Baptiste Chermanne's design, was finished in 1757. The façade front part is marvellous, in high contrast with the side façades which are in bricks and very sober. The said front façade is ornated with twenty cylindrical columns with Corinthian capitals. The central part of that façade is round shaped with an oculus at its wall top, surmounted by some statues portraying Christ and some apostles. Three niches containing statues and three medallions decorate the lower part of the front façade. There are three entrances, that in the middle, larger than the others, leads straight to the central nave. The whole baroque ensemble in that part is artistically arranged and very attractive. Inside, the architectural set up combined with the decorative elements is really dazzling, and it's there where the neoclassical style features appear with all their splendour, as in the semidetached columns, monumental pilasters, Chorinthian capitals and cherubs. It's a three-aisle church, the height of the central nave being remarkable; that nave is four times higher than the side aisles but of course lower than the dome which, together with the skylight, is approximately seventy metres high. The interior décor is made basically with stucco and some of the paintings which can be contemplated there are the work of famous painters such as Antoine Van Dyk, Jacob Jordaens and Jaques Nicolaï. The fact of being able to behold such marvellous artworks housed in that church is a real pleasure. The central nave is covered by a barrel vault decorated with golden stars, and on the upper sides thereof, between the Corinthian capitals there is a frieze carved with swags of fruit and flowers. The said decorative elements make that nave be a stunning part of the church interior. In the middle of each one of the side aisles there is a dome simpler and smaller than that in the central nave, the latter, which finds itself above the high altar, is spectacular. The four pillars supporting the dome drum are flanked by Corinthian columns and include statues of four Church Fathers. The pendentives which surmount the pillars are decorated with allegories of the theological virtues and of the religion. Everything is of a extreme beauty, and it's worth to behold that dome and pillars for a long time so as to observe the nice details thereof. In the choir everything is fantastic. On the side walls there are marvellous paintings, one of them depicting the Last Supper is sublime. The wood marquetry in that part of the temple beyond the transept is a masterpiece in itself. The stall range as well as the bishop's chair and its tabernacle are dazzling beauties. The high altar is relatively simple but imposing, particularly the crucifix behind the table with its white marble Christ on a black cross at the back of the apse flanked in the same altarpiece by four cylinder reddish marble columns with composite capitals. In the upper part of the altarpiece above the crucifix there is an elegant statue of the Virgin with the Child and on both sides of the altarpiece there are also white marble statues on their respective pedestals portraying St. Peter and St. Paul. The harmonic conception of the whole is outstanding. Apart from the high altar there are some ancillary ones which are worth being contemplated such as that of St. Sacrament and that in the Immaculate chapel. Another two superb elements of that temple are the pulpit and the organ. The pulpit, made entirely of mahogany or alike, is a great work consisting of three parts: the base formed by three perfectly executed statues, the pulpit chest with statues of putti all around its outer part, and above that part there is an abat-voix which is held by large angel figures. On the top of that abat-voix a number of putti can again be seen. It's a dazzling work worth being contemplated carefully. The organ has a monumental case built by the organ builder Wilhelm Korfmacher in the middle of the nineteenth century. It's been renovated several times and completely rebuilt in the sixties of the twentieth century. It now has sixty stops distributed over four manual keyboards and the pedalboard. Therefore, Namur St. Aubain cathedral is a magnificent edifice whose visit is highly recommended particularly to admire its rich interior and the marvels housed in it. No one should leave that Belgian city without visiting that jewel of neoclassical architecture.
9. Place d'Armes
10. Grand Casino de Namur
Overall Ratings
3.5 based on 47 reviews
Located ideally along the Meuse, the Casino de Namur is a must see monument. The inhabitants of Namur are proud of this building, which has existed for more than a century. You will find within the Casino de Namur a vast choice in terms of entertainment. A friendly staff will be happy to assist you in your adventures at the casino. Roulette, Black Jack, Poker, Bingo, Slots, there is something for everyone. Many possibilities for restoration are available to you. Snacks, tapas bar, lunch of the day and a prestigious restaurant located on the banks of the Meuse are in this sign. The Casino is only accessible to people aged 21 or over, however admission is free whether it is to play or eat.
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