Via Le Roeulx – Gottignies – Ville-sur-Haine

Grand’Place car park in Le Roeulx

(S/E) From the Grand’Place, head down Rue Grande and turn left at Saint-Nicolas Church. Follow the Chaussée de Mons for a few dozen metres. At the junction, turn right onto Rue de la Renardise and continue along this road towards Gottignies and Thieusies.

(1) At the first Y-junction, continue to the right along Rue de la Reine.
Carry on straight ahead until you reach the first junction at the bottom of the hill.

(2) At the junction, turn left onto Rue du Blanc Boquet. At the entrance to the village of Gottignies, this street becomes Rue du Vent Val.
Carry on along this street until you reach the junction with Rue de Ville and Rue Samuel Manet.

(3) At this junction, carry on straight ahead towards Saint-Denis, still on Rue du Vent Val. After 400 metres, Rue du Vent Val changes its name to Rue des Bruyères.
At the junction, carry on straight ahead along Rue des Bruyères (the road narrows).

(4) Turn left onto Rue des Bruyères and, at the Y-junction, go straight on along the country lane that crosses the fields to complete the circular route of this long stretch of Rue des Bruyères.

(5) At the junction with Rue de Ville, turn right. When you reach the junction by the motorway, turn left onto Rue Sentier du Chien. At the bottom of the slope, turn left and head towards the motorway bridge.

(6) Go under the motorway bridge and carry on straight ahead. At the junction, go straight on towards the roundabout.

(7) At the roundabout, take the third exit (Rue du Coron) and at the next junction, turn right towards the Price Memorial.

(8) Walk past the George Price Memorial (do not take the footbridge). Head up towards the towpath of the new Canal du Centre and turn left towards the Strépy-Thieu funicular lift.

(9) Continue along the towpath. As you reach the Hardat Bridge, on your right, you’ll see Hydraulic Lift No. 4, situated on the old Canal du Centre Historique.

(10) At the funicular lift, just after the bridge, turn slightly left onto the path leading up to the lift’s promenade bridge (the RaVel Brussels–Le Roeulx cycle path). At the top, turn left and continue along the RaVel cycle path, then turn right onto the same path to reach the upper leat of the new Canal du Centre.

(11) Once you reach the upper leat, turn left onto the towpath and then left again towards the Quai du Pont Canal (RaVel Bracquegnies path). At the junction, head left along the cycle path.

(12) At the roundabout, take the second exit onto Rue du Pavé du Roeulx. At the bottom of the street, turn right onto Rue de Savoie and pass under the motorway bridge. At the next junction, turn left onto Faubourg de Binche to head back to the starting point: the Grand’Place (S/E).

(S/E) Just 50 metres from the Grand’Place in Le Roeulx, cafés and restaurants are on hand to satisfy your hunger and thirst.

(9) Bicycles are available for hire (8 available) at the Centre Sportif des Ascenseurs in Thieu -
Address: Rue du Manoir Saint-Jean, 7070 Thieu
Website: Centre Sportif des Ascenseurs de Thieu -
Email: info@leroeulxsport.be – Telephone: 064 65 20 64

Gravel tracks, except for approximately 1 km, which is a short path crossing the fields from the (4).

(S/E) Grand Place. The Grand Place, which is listed by the Royal Commission for Monuments and Sites, is triangular in shape and a ‘wel’ (a drinking trough) stood in its narrowest part. Opposite this was a water pump where the people of Thieu used to fetch drinking water. The Town Hall dates from 1862; it replaced the ‘Maison de la Paix’, which was situated on the left-hand corner of the Grand Place. The façade is heavily inspired by the central section of the Castle of the Princes of Croÿ: six openings, a triangular pediment and a balcony with a balustrade. Several notable houses surround the Grand’Place: the Maison Saint-Nicolas (No. 28), the Maison du Cornet (No. 30) and the so-called ‘Spanish House’ (No. 35). The road running alongside the Grand’Place is the old Nivelles–Binche road.

St Nicholas’ Church. The building is in the Neo-Gothic style. The bell tower rises to a height of 75 metres. Five bells have gradually been installed there: Adélaïde and Constance (dating from 1818) were already in the previous bell tower; Léopoldine, Magdelaine and Louise were added in 1871.

(2) Rue du Blanc Boquet. The name is thought to derive from the presence of a birch grove (the bark is whitish). Near Gottignies, this street is known as Rue du Vent Val, which means ‘where the wind rages’, as this plain is constantly swept by the winds.

(3) Petit Dragon. Before the Battle of Waterloo, a detachment of Napoleon’s armies is said to have set up camp not far from this crossroads.

(5) Chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and Rue des Fonds. This chapel served as a resting place for the Blessed Sacrament during the Corpus Christi procession in June (the Rogation Days). Rue des Fonds (towards Les Fonds de Gottignies) was the old road linking Mons to Le Roeulx via Obourg and Saint-Denis.

(6) Creuse Chapel. Just before the motorway bridge, a path on the right leads to the Creuse Chapel. In the 16th century, a shepherd found a statuette of the Virgin Mary in a spring. It was placed on the altar of Saint-Lambert’s Church. Mysteriously, every time the statuette was placed on the altar, it would be found back in the spring the following morning. A chapel was therefore built at this ‘miraculous’ spot.

(7) Place de Ville-sur-Haine The name of this village is thought to derive from a Belgic-Roman villa situated on the banks of the river.

(8) George Price Footbridge. Named after George Price, the last Canadian soldier to be killed two minutes before the 1918 Armistice.

(9) Hydraulic lift number 4. This lift overcomes a height difference of 16.33 metres. It is the last in a series of four lifts that together overcome a total height difference of 68 metres over a distance of 7 kilometres. This site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
You can visit it by taking the path that leads up to Place Hardat and then crossing the Hardat Bridge, which spans the new Canal du Centre.

(10) The Strépy-Thieu funicular lift. It is called a funicular because the two gondolas are suspended by steel cables. It overcomes a height difference of 73.15 metres.