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Mons, Historical Heart

Architecture in Mons
7.0 km
Touring cyclist
1h 30min
Medium
  • Beautiful Mons is at its most beautiful when you tackle it by bike!

    When you go by bike through the large archway to enter the town hall courtyard, you feel immediately that this ride will be marked by a beautiful discovery. At every street corner, at every turn, Mons the city of art and history will unfold before you. The path joins the Grand Place and goes down rue de Nimy; by bike, you soon realise that the city was built on a promontory. Along the route, the streets seem to flit around...
    Beautiful Mons is at its most beautiful when you tackle it by bike!

    When you go by bike through the large archway to enter the town hall courtyard, you feel immediately that this ride will be marked by a beautiful discovery. At every street corner, at every turn, Mons the city of art and history will unfold before you. The path joins the Grand Place and goes down rue de Nimy; by bike, you soon realise that the city was built on a promontory. Along the route, the streets seem to flit around its lighthouse (belfry). A little after having followed the Théâtre le Manège, you enter the intimacy of the city as you ride across Jardin Gustave Jacobs. At the exit alongside ruelle Rachot there is a completely different atmosphere: this is Mons. And seeing the children playing in the street immerses you in the photographic imagery of a certain Doisneau. From Place de la Grande Pêcherie to Place du Parc to Square Rossevelt, Mons is also clearly green. By cycling, the city will have bewitched you…
Points of interest
1 BAM (Fine Arts Museum of Mons)
A museum to discover!

The Mons Fine Arts Museum (BAM) stands out in terms of approachability and environment. Going there is a museum experience like no other; it is a place of discovery where artistic creations in all their various forms rub shoulders. And it is alive with events all year long.

This unashamedly contemporary architectural project combines the functionality and rigour required of museums with aestheticism, as its architecture showcases the bright, light-filled spaces dedicated to transparency.

Recent renovations make the BAM a major cultural setting, which hosts 2,000 m² of exhibition space over three floors, together with the Reine Astrid garden, suitable for displaying works of art. And let’s not forget an educational service "Le Dynamusée", with three events areas and an 80-person auditorium.
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2 Maison Losseau
3 Mundaneum
4 Arsonic
The Arsonic is composed of two distinctive spaces: the Chapel of silence for private listening and the Passage of rumours, which hosts sound exhibitions.
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5 Théâtre le Manège
The Manège Mons Maubeuge is a cross-border venue that hosts more than one hundred shows, seasons and festivals of all kinds every year.
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6 Manège de Sury
The Manège de Sury is a former convent-turned-school; a location now home to a “micro-city” or ideal community. In 2016, the restored and repurposed building complex became an incubator for innovative companies, a model urban island for the creation of future technology marked by the free circulation of information.
7 Maison Folie
Within the manège.mons structure, the Maison Folie designs its action on the basis of an open-minded vision of artistic, cultural, and associative practices.

Although the Maison Folie stands out as an extraordinary setting due to its spaces - which are constantly changing - with their “unfinished” look, and its artistic and cultural offerings, it is also a laboratory, a place of multidisciplinary cultural and artistic experimentation, where new links between art and society are developed. In addition, the public does not only come to see shows or exhibitions, but are also invited to participate in the creative process, and in artistic moments that break the traditional mould.
8 Mons Memorial Museum
Come and explore a place of unique history!

A museum, a place for reflection, a space for asking questions... So many names to describe the Mons Memorial Museum!

This new museum space invites visitors of all ages to ponder the many complex realities of wartime events. A vast permanent exhibition confronts the public with Mons city’s unique history as well as the international events of both world wars and the periods surrounding them.

Using the example of men and women who witnessed events, visitors are immersed in the everyday lives of soldiers and civilians during wartime. Their testimonies are the golden thread running through the museum and add life to the artefacts on show. These letters, notebooks and interviews provide a sensitive insight into the events examined in the Mons Memorial Museum.

The artefacts exhibited, selected from among 5,000 that include military historical collections of Mons city, ask us to fundamentally re-examine the relationships between the civilian population and the military. This reflection takes shape along a route leading visitors from the Middle Ages through the Old Regime up until the two world wars. This can be continued in the temporary exhibition hall, which regularly homes in on a military history topic for visitors.
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9 Design Centre
Create or expand your own business.. some dream about it, but others actually do it! However, actually accomplishing an idea isn’t so simple. Hence, since 2005 the Progress agency Maison du Design has been offering you advice and support in the various key phases of your start-up project or business development.

Maison du Design is a professional team offering support based on a creative methodology that maximises the chances of your project’s success.
10 Former slaughterhouses
A heritage site for contemporary art.

Accessible to the public since 2006, the former slaughterhouses host events and temporary exhibitions mainly devoted to contemporary plastic artwork. T

he main building, the Grand Hall, extends over a single level 70 metres long and 10 metres wide. The other two parts, the barn and the fridge, house respectively the non-profit organisation World Craft Council Belgique Francophone dedicated to the applied arts and the non-profit organisation Transcultures which explores the fields of digital creation and sound art.
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11 Musée François Duesberg
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12 Artothèque
The chapel of the Couvent des Ursulines becomes the home of Mons’ municipal heritage, showcasing the works of art and activities around them.

Right at the heart of the Pôle Muséal, Artothèque is a venue dedicated to preserving, researching, restoring and studying our heritage, bringing together all the municipality’s collections in one place! As well as its commitment to conservation, the Artothèque plays also a significant role in the promotion of Mons’ heritage by making it accessible virtually thanks to the virtual Artothèque, as well as by revealing the behind-the-scenes work that goes on in museums.
13 Regional museum of natural sciences
The regional museum of natural sciences is today an educational museum where visitors at nursery, primary and secondary level can find interesting illustrations of ideas relating to the natural sciences and nature.
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14 Musée du Doudou
16 Belfry
The Belfry was included in UNESCO’s prestigious World Heritage List in 1999. With its 87-meter high, it is the only baroque belfry in Belgium.
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81 meters of difference in height
  • Start altitude : 58 m
  • End altitude : 58 m
  • Maximum altitude : 64 m
  • Minimum altitude : 33 m
  • Total positive elevation : 81 m
  • Total negative elevation : -81 m
  • Max positive elevation : 21 m
  • Min positive elevation : -16 m