The best traffic-free bike rides around Ciney

Nice large natural art objects

It all began in 1240, when the monks of the Belgian monastery of Notre-Dame de Leffe began brewing beer. For a long time, they produced their own abbey beer. However, during the French Revolution, the monastery was closed. It wasn't until 1929 that the monastery was revived, and the monks resumed their brewing activities. A good twenty years later, the brothers Nys and Albert Lootvoet began producing beer based on the Leffe Abbey recipe. Their company is now owned by the brewing giant Anheuser-Bush InBev. Source: bierpedia.org/bier/leffe-blonde

In 1152, Henry the Blind, Count of Namur, donated the church of Leffe to the Premonstratensians of Floreffe. The monastery resulting from this donation became an abbey in 1200. It was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries and plundered by the revolutionaries in 1794. In 1816, the current buildings were sold and converted into workshops. They were repurchased in 1903 by French Premonstratensians who were then in exile and, starting in 1931, restored by their Flemish confreres from Tongerlo, who rebuilt the abbey. The abbey today has a double courtyard. The 17th-century abbey quarter, rebuilt in 1747, borders the guest quarter, dating from 1604. The former library, which was separate from the abbey, is now a primary school. Source: visitwallonia.de/de/content/abtei-notre-dame-de-lesse

It all began in 1240, when the monks of the Belgian monastery of Notre-Dame de Leffe began brewing beer. For a long time, they produced their own abbey beer. However, during the French Revolution, the monastery was closed. It wasn't until 1929 that the monastery was revived, and the monks resumed their brewing activities. A good twenty years later, the brothers Nys and Albert Lootvoet began producing beer based on the Leffe Abbey recipe. Their company is now owned by the brewing giant Anheuser-Bush InBev. Source: bierpedia.org/bier/leffe-blonde

Dinant is a beautiful little town with a rich history and is well worth a stop.

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