The picturesque village of Revogne
The village of Revogne nestles among beautiful bucolic landscapes and deep forests ; but also boasts an eventful past, traces of which can still admired throughout the village. Let's discover this Beauraing village step by step..
In the footsteps of the past...
From this bridge, you can see all that made the history of Revogne.
You can see the castle and the chapel on one side, and if you turn towards the right, you will see the last vestige of the fortified castle: the gate of Wellin (also known as the Lomprez gate). In the Middle Ages, Revogne was an actual town, a major military fortification surrounded by a long wall, and was destroyed in 1466 by Charles the Bold.
Behind you is an imposing Marian grotto, built by the villagers in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes to give thanks for her protection. A pilgrimage takes place each year during the Nativity of the Virgin Mary celebration (on the first Sunday of September), when the pilgrims assemble at the chapel of Saint Etienne to celebrate a special mass for the occasion.
The Saint-Etienne chapel
The current Saint-Etienne (Saint Stephen) chapel, dates from 1777, but the bell is a lot older - it dates from the early 16th century - and used to hang in the Romanesque church near the feudal castle. This is quite unusual as at the time bells were often melted down to suit military needs!
The castle-farm (private property)
While we're at it, let's talk about the castle-farm. his fortified farm was built on order of Bernard de Harroy in the typical architectural style that was popular in the 17th century. This private property overlooking the village was built using stones that were salvages from the old castle. This just goes to show that in Revogne, common sense and recycling have been part of everyday life for centuries! You can also admire another vestige of medieval Revogne about 100 metres of the old ramparts, encircling the current castle-farm.
The Lomprez gate
Nearby the river, you can admire the Lomprez gate, the last gate of the old medieval town. This 1240 gate is quite remarkable, as it is Gothic (pointed arches) and Romanesque(round arches) on the other.
Rhinolophus?
No, it's not a magic spell from a world-famous wizard movie !
It's the Latin name of the lesser horseshoe bat, one of the most endangered species in Wallonia. Weighing a mere 6 to 10 grams, the lesser horseshoe bat is one of the smallest bats in the area. Unfortunately, it also holds the record as one of the most endangered mammals in Wallonia. While there were several hundreds of thousands of them in the 1950's, there are less than 300 remaining today, grouped in three colonies situated in Orval, Modave, and.... Revogne!
This unique cohabitation of living hedges, patchwork fields, and woods makes Revogne a unique biotope. This also explains why the cellars of the former castle of Revogne are among the three places in Belgium that serve as a refuge for this minute bat; the area attracts a wide variety of insects the bat is particularly fond of.
