The best road cycling routes around Huy

Great scenery along the Maas

Augustinian Abbey on the Meuse River, whose origins date back to 1075. The complex features an impressive corner tower, gateway, abbey church, dovecote, watermill, brewery, and other outbuildings. Later, it also housed a tax collection house and the abbot's palace. Today, it's a large school complex that can be very busy on a Wednesday afternoon.

One of Liège's most beautiful castles, originating in the 11th century, completely surrounded by a moat. Striking are the checkerboard facades in limestone and brown sandstone and the pepper-pot-like turrets. Various owners succeeded one another over the centuries. For two centuries (16th-17th century), it was owned by the powerful de Merode family, who gave the castle its current appearance. They sold it to the Van den Steen family in 1720. The last descendant of the family, Count Guy vanden Steen, bequeathed it to the province in 1999. He was a sculptor, among other things, and many of his bronze statues still adorn the gardens. He did, however, incorporate a distinctive symbolism, depicting nude female figures mating with beetles. The 22-hectare estate also features an Italian ornamental garden with water features and bronze statues, a 19th-century vegetable garden with orangeries, a 19th-century icehouse, and many listed trees. The castle also has its own church within the moat on a peninsula. Over the centuries, the owners have amassed numerous curiosities that can be seen in the castle, which is now a provincial property and open to visitors.

Since 1965, the Oteppe castle and its surrounding estate (65 ha) have been run as a holiday centre ("L'Hirondelle") with a hotel, campsite, holiday chalets and bungalows, swimming pools, playground and fishing ponds; as a result, the village's population has almost doubled during the summer months.

Today, the castle is part of the Radhadesh estate, which also includes a more recent residential center and several even more recent agricultural buildings. Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen (Flanders Public Art Agency) calls it a spiritual community, where the new residents have thoroughly restored the castle and transformed it into a true spiritual oasis where you can explore the colorful culture of Indian traditions. Specifically, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (formerly the Hare Krishna movement) has a base and residential community there. There's also a vegan restaurant, a shop, a museum of sacred art (MOSA), and you can take a paid tour. The temple is accessible without payment. There's also a 2.8-kilometer "spiritual" walking trail. More at https://www.okv.be/museum/radhadesh-kasteel-van-petite-somme I'm not mentioning the domain's website because of a virus alert on my computer.

Built in 1888 and now in its neo-Gothic style, the castle served as a field hospital during the First World War, where the Jourda family cared for wounded and also sheltered local residents whose homes had been destroyed. During the Second World War, it housed American soldiers during the Rundstedt Offensive. From 1946 onwards, it became a holiday center, a school for people with intellectual disabilities, a youth hostel, a campsite, and a hotel-restaurant, all under the initiative of mayors Jean Andrieu of Herstal and Denis Deghaye of Oupeye. After the initiative's bankruptcy, a Brussels real estate agent, Serge Frankovich, bought the property in 1975, leaving it vacant for five years and plundering it. The Hare Krishna movement then purchased it and turned it into the Radhadesh estate. Sources: - https://www.castles.nl/petite-somme-castle - https://www.burchten-kastelen.be/provincies/luxemburg/002%20Kasteel%20van%20Petite%20Somme/Kasteel%20van%20Petite%20Somme.html - https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite-Somme

Since 1980, the castle of Petite-Somme has housed a temple of the Hare Krishna movement, which today operates as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The dilapidated castle, of course, has a longer history. The current castle is also not the original and dates from 1888. The first mention of a castle on this site dates back to the eleventh century, when a certain Gozélonde Montaigu owned it. He was also the first Count of Montaigu. The County of Montaigu was quite influential for a time. It included the County of Duras in the Sint-Truiden region, the County of Clermont-sous-Huy, the Lordship of Jodoigne, and the village of Marcourt. The Counts of Montaigu were also vice-patrons of the Abbey of Sint-Truiden. Ecclesiastically, it belonged to the diocese of Liège. The castle was reportedly donated to the Abbey of Saint Hubert by the wife of Gozélon de Montaigu as penance for his husband's alleged plundering of the abbey's property. In the fourteenth century, a certain Jean de Bohême was said to have owned it, adding a tower to the castle, which became part of Luxembourg's defensive line. In 1461, the castle became the property of the de Hamal family, a Dutch-Belgian noble family that also appears in the histories of several Limburg villages and lordships (including 's Herenelderen, Grevenbroek, and the land of Vogelsanck). The de Hamal family held the lordship and castle of Petite Somme until 1774. Several noble families then succeeded one another. First came Albert Joseph de Favereau, born in 1750. De Favereau demolished the house that had served as the Hamal family's residence and built a brick manor house on its foundations. The new castle remained in the family's possession until 1877. Other sources claim that the demolition was carried out by the Count de Vaux, Aimable-Alexis de Jourda. What is certain is that the de Favereau family building was also demolished by a certain Louise Marie Eulalie, a relative of Baron Victor Albert de Favereau. And whatever the exact details are: it is certain that the current neo-Gothic castle stood there in 1888. Sources: - https://www.castles.nl/petite-somme-castle - https://www.burchten-kastelen.be/provincies/luxemburg/002%20Kasteel%20van%20Petite%20Somme/Kasteel%20van%20Petite%20Somme.html - https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite-Somme

Beautiful chapel at the castle/estate. It's private, so it's not open to the public. It's being restored. It's said to have been built with perfectly cut stones on site and without the use of cement or mortar. Thanks to its perfect construction techniques, the crypt is said to remain bone dry after all this time, even though it lies below the waterline.