Discover Modave: Nature, Château and Culture

Modave combines protected landscapes, a remarkable château steeped in history and signposted trails to create a destination offering a variety of ways to explore. Those looking for a holiday apartment for a stay combining nature, culture and activity can plan very different days here depending on their interests: from distinctive habitats and historic monuments to a hike at Château de Modave or a route along the RAVeL Line 126.

Nature between limestone grasslands and Vallon de la Source

One of the area's defining natural landscapes is Rocher du Vieux Château et Vallon de la Source. Here, limestone grasslands alternate with oak-hornbeam woods on limestone, ravine forests and alluvial forests. This landscape is also notable for its wildlife and plant life. Rare plants include orchids, small scabious and large-flowered yellow oxeye. Protected animals include the lesser horseshoe bat, black woodpecker, fire salamander, common wall lizard and smooth snake.

The area lies in the municipality of Modave and within the Vallées du Hoyoux et du Triffoy Natura 2000 site. Modave's nature reserve also includes notable trees and numerous limestone grasslands. For your travel planning, this means that if you are interested in different types of landscape, nature observation and trails, Modave offers more than just a single excursion destination. Each natural area can provide its own focus for the day.

Château park and traces of ruling history

The Château des comtes de Marchin stands at the centre of a 450-hectare estate designated as a nature reserve. This setting includes a 38-hectare park. Since 25 October 1946, the Château des comtes de Marchin has been protected both as a historic monument and as a site; the protection covers the entire château, its outbuildings and the park.

The park of Château de Modave was redesigned as a French formal garden in the 19th century. To the sides of the château are gardens with rose beds, enclosed at their ends by yew hedges. Château de Modave also presents, in one of its rooms, a waterwheel built in Modave in the 17th century and attributed to Renkin Sualem. This makes it possible to combine garden design, architecture and the history of technology during a stay, without every day having to be the same.

Saint Martin's Church also offers an insight into the area's ruling history. It contains four funerary monuments connected with this history. Among the notable pieces is the mausoleum of Jean de Marchin, lord of Grand-Modave from 1642 to 1652, and his wife Jeanne de La Vaulx-Renard. It is made of black marble, with white-marble effigies of the deceased, and was created by Lucas Fayd'Herbe, a pupil of Rubens.

Hikes and trails for active days

The signposted Promenade de Petit Modave starts at Château de Modave and is 7.5 km long. It offers an easy way to add a clearly defined hike to your stay. Those who prefer to travel along a former railway line can use RAVeL Line 126, which follows its own secured route. The former railway line 126 was largely closed in 2008 to make room for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

Another route runs for 5.3 km between Huy's Grand-Place and the village of Régissa in Modave via Marchin. This route provides a connection to RAVeL 126 towards Ciney. Depending on your preferred daily pace, you can therefore give different emphasis in Modave to nature trails, sites of cultural and historical interest and longer stretches of route.

When choosing a holiday apartment in Modave, it is worth first deciding what you want to focus on: would you mainly like to discover landscapes and nature reserves, combine the château park with local history, or spend several days exploring hiking and cycling routes? The verified sights are not necessarily all the same distance from one another. It therefore makes sense to base your accommodation choice on your planned itinerary and preferred way of structuring each day.

For more travel ideas, you can also select Vierset-Barse. Other destinations in this selection include Pepinster, Vieuxville, Dalhem, Seraing, Fexhe-Le-Haut-Clocher, Verviers and Trooz.

To the main travel overview: Liège.