The citadel above Dinant
The citadel of Dinant: 408 steps or the road up
The citadel stands more than 100 metres above the Meuse in Dinant. The cable car is closed for renovation, so you climb 408 steps or drive up. What the visit covers.
The citadel of Dinant stands on the cliff more than 100 metres above the Meuse. From the top you look down the valley and onto a town squeezed between the rock and the river.
Where it fits on our day
On our day around Dinant, the citadel is not a fixed stop. It belongs to the Dinant town block, which we run in the afternoon when Château de Freÿr is closed. On a day when Freÿr is open, there is usually no time for both.
Guests often ask me if it is worth the climb. My answer is yes, for the view down the Meuse valley. Up top, the museum also covers 1914 honestly. If you want a day built around it, tell us your dates.
Getting up: the steps or the road
The cable car is closed for major renovation. It stopped on 29 October 2025, and in September 2026 it was expected to stay closed for one and a half to two years. Do not plan your visit around it.
That leaves two ways up. You climb the staircase of 408 steps from the town centre, or you drive up the road to the top entrance. There are two free car parks at the top. Visitors with reduced mobility can only get in from the top, and the site has uneven cobblestones.
What the visit covers
The visit is self-guided with a HistoPad tablet, included in your ticket and available in eight languages. The citadel’s own site describes themed rooms, historic corridors and reconstructed scenes from more than a thousand years of the site.
The fortress you see now was built between 1818 and 1821, when this region was briefly Dutch. Older forts stood on the same rock. In 1466, Charles the Bold sacked the town below.
A large part of the visit tells the first days of the First World War in Dinant. On 23 August 1914, German troops executed 674 civilians in this town. The visit leads you through it with sound, and that is worth knowing before you go in.
The church at the foot of the rock
Right below the citadel stands the collegiate church of Notre-Dame, with its pear-shaped bell tower. It is the shape everyone remembers from photos of Dinant. In 1227 a piece of the cliff collapsed onto the old church, and the town rebuilt it.
From the citadel you look straight down onto its roof. So the two make one stop: the church at the bottom, the view at the top.
When it is not for you
The sound is the part to be ready for. On one of our September days, a guest told me about the first room. A recording of a woman screaming plays the whole time, and she found the panels hard to read and take in. If loud rooms bother you, move through that part quickly.
It is also a second choice on our own days. If you have one afternoon in the valley and Freÿr is open, I would give it to Freÿr.
Days we ran here
- Walzin, the citadel and Chimay: Daniel’s Dinant day, September 2024. The citadel and the collegiate church, between coffee by Walzin and the abbey at Chimay.
- Carmit’s day for one around Dinant, May 2025. The citadel after the cave, on a day for one guest.
- Stephanie F. and Joe M., June 2026. Up to the citadel after lunch, then on to Freÿr.
- Marie P. and Steve, September 2026. The citadel and the story of August 1914, and the screaming in the first room.
Rather not plan it yourself?
The citadel is part of the day we run around Dinant and the Meuse valley, on the afternoons when Freÿr is closed. Pickup at your door in Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges or anywhere else in Belgium. Lunch and drinks throughout, one party per day. Tell us your dates and we build the day around you. Days run year-round on request, and you get a personal reply within 24 hours.
Plan Your Day