Belgian Heritage Center

The Belgian Heritage Center is in the Namur National Landmark Historic District and illustrates a living history through historic buildings, artifacts, exhibits and video. The surrounding rural area is home to the largest Walloon Belgian settlement in the US. 

As you arrive, you will drive through communities with homesteads dating back to the original settlers, many with traditional Belgian brick houses.  BHC’s campus includes a church built in 1893, which houses exhibits and oral histories in English and Walloon. You can tour an 1894 school/convent building with a space that doubles as classroom worship space and living facilities for the sisters who taught there. You will see a traditional votive (roadside) chapel in honor of St Roch and a historic cemetery with an interesting backstory.  

BHC’s annual events include a Bread & Booyah lunch, Belgian Waffle Breakfast and Kermiss, a traditional Belgian Harvest festival, and a remembrance of the devastating Great Fire of 1871.