Durbuy, the world's smallest city

Reading the tourist guides of Belgium, I had repeatedly come across the term Durbuy the smallest city in the world. I haven’t had a chance to learn what the smallness of this town is about. One September Sunday we decided to fix it up.

As I mentioned, situated in the southeastern Belgian province of Luxembourg Durbuy is promoted as the smallest city in the world, this tourist slogan is due to the franchise card given by King Jean de Bohème, Count of Luxembourg. He gave the city the status of a town on the Ourthe River in 1331. The old town of Durbuy alone has about 400 inhabitants. As many tourist slogans is has nothing with true, cause it is not the smallest town in the world, as it is the Croatian town of Hum with about 30 inhabitants.

However, this does not discourage the thousands of tourists who visit this charming town in the Ardennes every year. It is recommended on many forums and discussion groups as a worthwhile visit, and this is a well-deserved opinion. Well preserved medieval buildings of the old town will survive. Walking through the streets of this town situated in the valley on the Ourthe river you can feel like centuries ago. Stone and greenery of various vegetation dominate.

Although there were a lot of tourists in the town that Sunday, they focused on the big square where there was a festival (about that later). We find relative peace and emptiness on the streets of the old town. The greenery is invading everywhere, on some buildings, it has overtaken whole stone walls. The tenement houses have their own unique character, many of them are decorated with flowers or old things.

Not only greenery can be found on the walls of the buildings, this tandem bike was a decoration of one of the buildings where the pub was located, it has to be admitted that for every 400 inhabitants there are many pubs in the city. Everything for tourists.

These two old bikes aren’t really used for decoration, but surrounded by medieval walls they also have their charm.

In one of the many antique shops we saw unusual furniture and decorations, made of wood from the surrounding forests. There were also many hunting trophies, deer horns, etc.

This local meat and cheese shop on one street of the old town with an artificial pig looking inside drew the attention of everyone passing by. The appetizing hams and cheeses in the shop windows invited to come inside. The good thing about such places is that sellers offer samples of their products to the customers, to avoid you buy something what you don’t like.

There are more streets to walk on endlessly, although in reality 15 minutes walk is enough to get around the whole old town.

I can only assume that these are hives, but I’m not sure, especially since they were only on one building in the centre. They could also be baskets to aerate the ham, I don’t know, but maybe one of you has ideas.

In shops with local products you could buy local beer, various types of jams, pâtés, etc. The same products can be bought in a supermarket two steps away from home, usually they are cheaper, we were not tempted to buy Ardennes products there for double price.

From the north, Durbuy is bounded by the rock Homalius, its peak is the highest in the city, below there is a small pond with a fountain. Next to it there is a perfumery surrounded by a flowery carpet, it is difficult to determine whether it is the perfume that smells or the flowers from the garden.

We returned to the town along the Ourthe River, on the other side of the bridge hiking and biking trails starts in the mountains surrounding the city, many hikers went out on trails or return. That day we limited ourselves to exploring the city.

As I mentioned earlier, most people stay in the main square of the town there was ”Fete de Biere, du Pain & du Fromage” festival, where, accompanied by a brass band, you could try different kinds of Belgian beer, sausage products and local cheeses. A great opportunity to have fun.

At the end, one last glance at the river, we wish to return there one day to cross this bridge and go on hiking or biking trails to the surrounding mountains.

The excellent promotional campaign of the smallest city in the world made the city earn its living from tourism and recreation. Walks along the charming narrow streets of the old town are not the only attractions that attract thousands of tourists to Durbuy, the inconspicuous Ourthe River attracts lovers of canoeing and other water sports, the surrounding steep rock walls tempt climbing fans. Everyone will find something interesting for themselves in Durbuy the smallest city in the world.