Grottes de Remouchamps

Useful Information

Location:	3 Rue de Louveigné, 4920 Aywaille. Motorway E25 Liège-Luxembourg exit 46 Remouchamps, N633d downhill and across the river, turn left on N633 and return across the river. Third house on the left. (50.480043, 5.712017)
Open:	FEB to 05-JAN daily 9-17. Online/Phone/Email Booking mandatory. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 20, Children (12-17) EUR 17, Children (3-11) EUR 14, Seniors (60+) EUR 16, Disabled EUR 14. Groups (20+): Adults EUR 15, Children (12-17) EUR 13, Children (3-11) EUR 11, Seniors (60+) EUR 13, Disabled EUR 13. Combi ticket with Monde Sauvage d'Aywaille: Adults EUR 34, Children (12-17) EUR 32.50, Children (3-11) EUR 28, Seniors (60+) EUR 29, Disabled EUR 28. Groups (20+): Adults EUR 25, Children (12-17) EUR 21, Children (3-11) EUR 17, Seniors (60+) EUR 25, Disabled EUR 24. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	LED
Dimension:	L=3,883 m.
Guided tours:	D=75 min, L=1,000 m, Boat Ride 700 m.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	E. Van den Broeck (1902): Quelques mots à propos des nouvelles fouilles exécutées dans la grotte de Remouchamps Bull. de la Société anthropologique de Bruxelles 21, 34–44 (1903). Edmond Rahir (1921): L’habitat tardenoisien des grottes de Remouchamps Chaleux et Montaigle, Bruxelles (1921). Edmond Rahir (1925): La Station Leduc (Epoque Tardenoisienne) à Remouchamps - Discussion. Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles, 40-1925: 90-101 pdf Edmond Rahir (1925): Remarquables percuteurs tardenoisiens trouvés à Remouchamps - Discussion. Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles, 40-1925: 121 pdf Michel C. Dewez (1974): New Hypotheses concerning Two Engraved Bones from La Grotte de Remouchamps, Belgium World Archaeology, Vol. 5, No. 3, Stone Age Studies (Feb., 1974), pp. 337-345 (11 pages) Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. jstor DOI pdf Philippe Crombé, Camille Pironneau, Prudence Robert, Pierre van der Sloot, Mathieu Boudin, Isabelle De Groote, Sophie Verheyden, Hans Vandendriessche (2024): Human response to the Younger Dryas along the southern North Sea basin, Northwest Europe Scientific Reports volume 14, Article number: 18074 (2024) Cite this article online DOI
Address:	Grottes de Remouchamps, Rue de Louveigné 3, 4920 Aywaille, B-4920 Remouchamps, Tel: +32-4-384-46-82. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1828	cave first explored.
1902	first systematic excavations by Rahir and Van den Broeck.
1912	opened to the public.
1924	electric light.
1969-1970	excavations by Michel C. Dewez and colleagues who dug five trenches in the entrance hall and four test-pits in the rest of the cave.
2010	LED lighting system installed in the Cathedral Hall by CaveLighting.

Description

The Grottes de Remouchamps (Caves of Remouchamps) are once more a cave with the Smile Pluralis Absurditatis. And no, there is definitely only one cave with that name. The cave is named after the small village Remouchamps, where it is located. The situation is quite interesting, as the village is located along Amblève river in a river valley. But the plateaus on both sides are heavily karstified and there are numerous caves, several are resurgences which produce small rivers, which are alls tributaries of Amblève river. Several river caves have loosing streams, so there are above ground rivers which go underground at a ponor and reappear at a karst spring. The N633 crosses the Amblève and then follows a side valley uphill. The third house on the left side, after a cafe and a restaurant, is the cave entrance. It seems to be higher up at the foot of a limestone cliff, withe ar rather exceptional concreate staircase leading up to the entrance and ticket office. One of the strange details is the pool at the foot of the staircase, which is obviously artificial and fed by the water from the lower level of the cave. So the cave entrance is a higher, dry level of the same cave.

After having paid, the visitors wait for the tour guide in the entrance chamber of the cave, with benches along the walls and a nice view out of the portal. This dry part of the cave was inhabited by Paleolithic hunters some 8,000 years ago. Why the cave was lost is unclear, but official sources say it was rediscovered in 1828, if the entrance collapsed or if was just overgrown is unknown. The cave entrance was visited from this year with resinous torches, but there was no development, and the number of visitors was quite low. The cave was also used as a wine cellar for some time. Small excavations revealed some archaeological remains, but nothing spectacular. In 1912 the cave was finally developed and opened as a show cave, after the Cathedral had been discovered. Its unclear how this actually worked, but the cave still has numerous wrought iron railings from this time so they actually developed the dry part at this point. For some reason they did not install electric light, the cave was visited with handheld lamps of unknown type. During World War II it was used as an air raid shelter.

The tour has two completely different parts. First the visitors follow the dry level almost one kilometer into the mountain, along round passages and small chambers with speleothems. The most spectacular speleothem of the cave is called the Grande Draperie (Large Drapery) and is located in the Salle de la Grande Draperie (Great Draperial Room). The flowstone forms a stone waterfall which is 7 m high. Finally, the biggest chamber of the cave, the 40 m high Cathédrale (Cathedral) is reached. Here the historic wrought iron spiral staircase leads down to the lower level with its river named Rubicon. Entering a flat bottom boat at a jetty the visitor return on the subterranean river.

The boat glides for 700 m over the river, which is said to be the longest underground boat ride in Europe. Unfortunately such river passages are typically devoid of speleothems and more or less boring. Here you can see the Palmier (Palm Tree), a stalagnate or pilar, where stalactite and stalagmite have grown together. The location is quite exceptional though, it stands in the middle of the river. For a stalagmite to grow here the passage must have been dry at some point, and it could only continue to grow as long as it was above the surface of the river. The stalactite part is surrounded by other stalactites at the ceiling, giving it a form rembling a palm tree, hence the name. Finally, you reach another jetty, directly behind the entrance hall, where the boats are left and a staircase leads back to the upper cave area. At the end of the tour the cave is exited at its entrance.

Cette oeuvre de la nature, absolument unique en son genre, qui représente d’une si charmante façon l’arbre dont elle porte le nom, constitue l’une des plus impressionnantes ornementations de la grotte.
This unique work of nature, which so charmingly represents the tree whose name it bears, is one of the cave's most impressive ornaments.
Edmond Rahir (*1864-✝1936).

Edmond Rahir from Bruxelles was archéologist and speleologist, who explored Remouchamps and took photographs. He was curator at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels from 1903. A year before he had made the first systematic excavations in the entrance hall of the upper gallery together with Van den Broeck. They found abot 5,000 lithic artefacts and faunal remains in a loam layer of variable thickness about 50 cm underneath the surface. They also identified two charcoal patches as hearth-remnants.

The Monde Sauvage d'Aywaille (Wild World of Aywaille) is a Safari park, which is located a few kilometers away. It offers African animals in a game enclosure, an african restaurant and a museum. Why those two offer combined tickets is not clear.