Bastogne

The Treveri, a Gaulish tribe, lived in the region at the time of the Roman conquest, but the name Bastogne first appears in 634, when the local lord gave the area to St Maximin's Abbey near Trier; it later passed to Prüm Abbey, and an 887 document mentions the town and its market. By the 13th century Henry VII, Count of Luxembourg, was minting coins here, and in 1332 John the Blind granted the town its charter and surrounded it with walls, of which the Porte de Trèves survives. Its grain and cattle fairs were so well known that in the 16th century Bastogne was called the "Paris of the Ardennes".

The town passed with Luxembourg to Burgundy in 1451 and then to the Spanish crown. Its walls repelled the Dutch in 1602 but were dismantled by order of Louis XIV in 1688. Belgian independence brought prosperity, as Ardennes timber and cattle fairs found markets abroad and railways linked the town to its neighbours, until German occupation in the First World War.

Liberated on 10 September 1944, Bastogne was attacked again when the Battle of the Bulge began on 16 December. The 101st Airborne Division, with parts of the 10th Armored and 82nd Airborne Divisions, was encircled in the town. On 22 December, asked to surrender, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe answered "Nuts!". The skies cleared the next day for supply drops, and on 26 December Patton's Third Army broke the siege. Fighting in the area ended three weeks later. On 2 December 2024 Bastogne merged with Bertogne, becoming the largest municipality in Belgium by area.

Remembrance defines the town. Bastogne is the end point of the Liberty Road, the commemorative route that follows the path of the liberating Allied forces, and monuments to McAuliffe, Patton and others stand around the centre. The Mardasson Memorial, a five-pointed star erected in 1950, honours the Americans killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, while the German dead lie at Recogne to the north. Monuments and markers of the Liberty Road keep that memory visible in the streets.

Older traditions survive alongside the war memory. The foire aux noix, the Nuts Fair, held every December, has nothing to do with McAuliffe's reply: it was a fair at which servants were hired, and those taken on again tied a red handkerchief with white spots around their necks to show they were no longer for hire and gave nuts to the young women. By chance, the general's "Nuts!" came on 22 December 1944, at the time of year when the fair was traditionally held. The key figure of local legend is the piche-cacaye.

Sport has deep roots here. Bastogne is the turning point of Liège–Bastogne–Liège, one of cycling's oldest one-day races, dating from the late 19th century. The Circuit des Ardennes, a 600-kilometre car race near Bastogne held from 1902, moved to Francorchamps around the First World War and lives on as the Belgian Grand Prix.

Since merging with Bertogne in December 2024, the municipality has had a population of just under 21,000, spread over about 264 square kilometres, the largest area of any Belgian municipality. It includes the old sections of Bastogne, Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau and Wardin, each a cluster of villages, as well as Bertogne, Flamierge and Longchamps. It is now the second most populous municipality in the province of Luxembourg, after Arlon.

The town sits on the ridge between the Rhine and Meuse basins, and the 50th parallel runs through it. It has been a market town since its medieval fairs, with shops and cafés along the main street and around Place McAuliffe. Visitors come to its museums and memorials throughout the year.

Without a railway since the 1990s, Bastogne depends on the car; two bus stations, Bastogne Nord and Bastogne Sud, serve a shuttle to Libramont, and part of the old railway line is now a cycle path. Winters on the plateau bring regular snow and frost.

Bastogne eats as the Ardennes do. Jambon d'Ardenne, a cured and smoked ham with protected geographical status, is one of the province's best-known products, often served with pâtés made from game such as wild boar; the forested Ardennes are renowned across Belgium for this kind of food. Game such as wild boar appears on local menus.

Belgian fries are as common here as anywhere in the country, bought from a friterie and traditionally served in a white cardboard cone wrapped in paper, with a spoonful of sauce on top, and carbonade flamande, beef stewed in Belgian beer, counts as one of the national dishes. The Trappist beers of Orval and Rochefort are brewed at abbeys elsewhere in Wallonia.

The forests turn colour in autumn. The spa town of Spa lies in an Ardennes valley south-east of Liège, and Jupiler lager comes from Jupille in Liège. The cafés and brasseries around Place McAuliffe and the main street serve the region's dishes.