Hainaut · Belgium Capital
In the destination Mons and Tournai.
In the photo: Grand-Place and Hôtel de Ville, Mons
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The city
Mons, Bergen in Flemish, is the capital of Hainaut and is French-speaking. The center climbs the hill around the Grand-Place, the Hôtel de Ville with the lucky monkey and the Beffroi de Mons, a UNESCO World Heritage site, up to the Collégiale Sainte-Waudru, the starting point of the Doudou. Museums include the Mundaneum, the BAM and the Mons Memorial Museum. In the surroundings are the Maison Van Gogh in Cuesmes, the flint mines of Spiennes, the Grand-Hornu and, in Brugelette, the Pairi Daiza zoo.
There's no accommodation in the guide yet in Mons.
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The local experience
Mons's main square, featuring the 15th-century Gothic Hôtel de Ville, the lucky monkey on the façade and, beyond, the Jardin du Mayeur and the Musée du Doudou. It is the stage for the Lumeçon combat.
The only Baroque beffroi tower in Belgium, at 87 metres with 49 bells, sitting atop the Mons hill. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it has an interpretation centre and a panoramic lift to the viewing platform.
Gothic church from the 15th to the 17th centuries, dedicated to Mons' patron saint. It houses the alabaster sculptures by Jacques Du Brœucq, the relics of Saint Waudru and the Car d'Or, the gilded carriage used in the Doudou procession.
The house in Cuesmes where Vincent van Gogh lived from 1879 to 1880, in the Borinage, when he turned from preaching to painting. The route starts in the garden and ends with a sound installation about the mining region.
The archive created by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine to classify all the world's knowledge on paper cards, now seen as a precursor to the internet. It is housed in a former department store from the 1930s.
The fine arts museum of Mons, in a contemporary building on rue Neuve next to the Grand-Place. It hosts major temporary exhibitions and has a collection of over 15,000 works.
The museum of military history of Mons and the region, from the Middle Ages to the two world wars, with about 5,000 objects, letters and testimonies. Mons witnessed the British army's first and last battles of the First World War.
One of the largest and oldest flint mines in Europe, dug about 6,000 years ago, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Silex's museum explains Neolithic mining, and the guided descent goes down 10 metres by stairs.
Neoclassical mining complex built at the beginning of the 19th century by Henri De Gorge, with an oval courtyard, workshops and 425 workers' houses. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it houses the MACS contemporary art museum and the CID design centre.
A 75-hectare zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, about 25 km from Mons, on the grounds of the former Cistercian abbey of Cambron. More than 7,000 animals in themed worlds representing Asia, Africa, the Americas and the polar regions.
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