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Designed by Antoine Wertz and originally meant to be put atop the rock of Dinant, the statue wielding a sword and a torch is said to have inspired Frederick Auguste Bartholdi when he created the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Collegiate church
The church dominating the city's riverbank stands in the place where a previous Romanesque one was destroyed by rocks falling from the cliff in 1227. The collegiate church took many centuries to be completed, during which the original plan to build two towers was abandoned in favour of the single one with the onion dome we see today. This is why the church's facade is so unusually tall. The interior is even more striking, almost as tall as wide and twice as long, flanked by columns appearing both sleek in comparison to the structure and thick in human scale. The interior is kept in the simple Gothic style characteristic for the Meuse region - this is thanks to the restoration work in the nineteenth century to bring stylistic uniformity to the interior. After the church's destruction in the First World War, the church was rebuilt verbatim to how it looked like before the war.
On a cliff, more than 100 m above the River Meuse, it offers spectacular views of the town and countryside. A fortification may have stood on this spot as long ago as the fourth century, and the Bishop Prince of Liège certainly ordered the construction of a fortress on this spot in 1051, but the present structure dates to the early 19th century. It is reached from the town either by cable car or by the 408 steps cut into the hillside. The citadel plays host to a small Arms Museum and several interesting art pieces that reveal the glorious past of this Meuse town.
This cave was discovered in 1904 and is one of the most beautiful ones in Belgium. There are small waterfalls inside the cave. A visit to the beautiful caves is highly recommended. They are easy to visit.
Bayard rock
The 40-m-tall rock needle at the Meuse riverbank according to the local legend been separated from the main rock mass by the strike of the hoof by Bayard, the magical horse carrying the four sons of Duke Ayman on the run from Charlemagne. The reality, however, is more prosaic - the separation happened in the times of Louis XIV in order to build the road along the Meuse still in place today.
Leffe Abbey
Located in the neighbourhood of Leffe north of the Citadel, the abbey has been inhabited since 1152 and features a splendid organ.
Leffe is a popular beer in Belgium and it originated in Dinant. The former abbey beer is no longer made in Dinant, but in this museum you can learn all about the origins of the beer, the life of the monks and the actual Leffe, followed by a Leffe tasting.