Meuse Valley Cultural Landscape

The upper Meuse valley can claim to be one of the finest cultural landscapes in Europe. Yet from Namur where the river turns to the east, and finally beyond Huy in the direction of Liège the scene changes. The broad Meuse now flows through the heavily industrialized lower Meuse valley past numerous blast furnaces, engineering works and factories, and only isolated ruined castles and rocky sections give the scenery a certain charm. The Meuse became one of the European rivers most heavily polluted with chemicals and for this reason the neighboring states are insisting on the construction of purification plants and the subsidizing of more ecologically favorable technology.