The town of Ath, Belgium is a popular place to find housing for those stationed at Chièvres Air Base. (Photocolorsteph - stock.adobe.com)
Source
Installations in this area:
SHAPE
Chièvres Air Base
Both SHAPE and Chièvres are within the Wallonia region of Belgium. French is the primary language spoken by the local Walloons in this rural area, full of villages, farms and forests.
Historically, Wallonia has been at the crossroads of major European political players. During Roman times, many native people adopted Roman culture and spoke Latin. As a result, the Germanic and Celtic peoples who fought Roman occupation called them the “Walha,” a term that meant foreigner. It is the origin of the word Wallonia. In the town of Ath, which is a popular place to find housing for those stationed at Chièvres, you can explore Wallonia’s Roman past at the Espace Gallo-Roman museum.
During the Middle Ages, the lands of Wallonia changed hands many times, with feudal lords governing fiercely independent areas. As a crossroads between powers and trade, these lands were worth defending. This is one of the reasons there are roughly 1,500 castles in the area; you cannot miss them! An hour away from SHAPE, the riverside town of Namur hosts a massive medieval fortress on the cliffs above its cobblestone shopping streets. Also worth visiting is the postcard-picture town of Dinant with its riverside homes backed by limestone cliffs. Further afield, the atmospheric village of Bouillion is lorded over by a sprawling hill-top castle in a bend in the river.
Bouillon is an atmospheric town with a massive hilltop castle. (T.W. van Urk - stock.adobe.com)
Source
Now relatively quiet, Wallonia has struggled to return to the economic heydays of its industrial past. It became the center of European industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with money and infrastructure growing fast. Much of this action was concentrated in the area between Mons and Liege. At the Bois-du-Luc mining heritage museum, you can walk in the footsteps of the miners, see the slag heaps and visit the mining village.
The World Wars are also still etched on the landscape of Wallonia. From the Mons Battlefield and Fort de Loncin on the Western Front of World War II, to World War II’s Battle of the Bulge destinations near Bastogne, military heritage abounds in this part of Europe.
