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City in Liège Province, Wallonia, Belgium
Photo: Michael Bienick, CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Spa is a town in the Liège province in Belgium, known as the "original" spa, i.e. a place where tourists came in to enjoy the health and wellness benefits of water and hot springs in particular. The springs in Spa became so popular that the name became genericized to mean any such place, with other versions of how it came to be also created over the years. Indeed, Spa is now one of 11 "Great Spa Towns of Europe", a transcontinental UNESCO world heritage site. Apart from the mineral waters, Spa also draws crowds several times a year when racing and other events are held at the nearby Spa-Francorchamps track.
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This ancient-looking church was built to follow late Roman style prevalent in the region closely, but was in fact built in 1885.
The old building of the city baths was closed in 2005 and reopened in April 2025 as a luxury hotel. The baths are now in a modern facility in the woods.
Spa's emblematic building houses the mineral water fountain named after the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, who visited the city in the 18th century and became a big fan of its healing and wellness qualities.
Villa royale Marie-Henriette
The city museum collects artifacts of the history of Spa with focus on its springs and related developments. It is housed in a villa that was built for the Belgian queen Marie-Henriette in 1863.
Venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, and of the Spa 24 Hours and 1000 km Spa endurance races. The next F1 races are 23-25 July 2027.
Built in 1762 it claims to be the oldest casino in the world.
Wellness centre on top of the hill in the town.
French restaurant
Restaurant with French cuisine.
You can book a factory tour on this link eaudysseedespa.be/index.php?lang=nl but the site appears to be only in French or Dutch.
From Brussels
One can of course also arrive by car, the journey from Brussels takes around 1.5 h.
From Germany
People can take S41 from Aachen Hbf to Verviers Central and transfer to L 09 to Spa or Spa-Géronstère station.
The centre of Spa is relatively small, but many attractions are in farther villages and neighbouring municipalities. TEC runs a network of bus lines connecting them.
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