Han-sur-Lesse (; wa, Han-so-Lesse) is a village of

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

and a district of the municipality of

Rochefort Rochefort () may refer to: Places France * Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department ** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard * Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department * Rochefort-du-Gard, in the Ga ...

, located in the

province of Namur Namur (; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the West) on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and the French depart ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Han-sur-Lesse was called Ham from 1139, Ham Han Sur Lesche, from 1266, Han Sur Lece from 1465 and Ham sur lez from 1528, by which time it had 14 families. The village then declined, with plague, epidemics and Franco-Spanish wars, but by 1766, there were 62 villagers. In 2021 the population was about 1,000. Tram_Han_1987_2

The place is famous for its cave complex carved under a hill by the river

Lesse The Lesse is a river in the Ardennes, in the Walloon region of Belgium. It is a right tributary to the river Meuse. The source of the Lesse is near Libramont-Chevigny, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The Lesse flows roughly in north-west ...

, which tourists reach via a preserved remnant of the country's

vicinal tramway The National Company of Light Railways ( nl, Nationale Maatschappij Van Buurtspoorwegen, abbreviated as NMVB; french: Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Vicinaux, abbreviated as SNCV) was a state-owned transportation provider which comprised ...

system. The metre gauge line opened in 1906 as a

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

off the Rochefort-Han-sur-Lesse-

Wellin Wellin (; wa, Welin) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 67.52 km2, had 2,958 inhabitants, giving a population density of 43.8 inhabitants per km2. ...

line, which was open from 1904 to 1957. Between 1988 and 1992 the village tram terminus was moved from a loop around the church of Saint-Hubert de Han-sur-Lesse to a loop on the other side of Rue Joseph Lamotte. The church of Saint-Hubert, in the centre of the village, was rebuilt in 1905 in a

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style by Clément Léonard and Hubert Froment.

References

External links

* (fr
Official website
Former municipalities of Namur (province) Rochefort, Belgium {{Namur-geo-stub