Dinant Citadel Cable Car to Be Replaced

The cable car serving the Citadel of Dinant, out of service since 27 October 2025, will be entirely replaced after authorities concluded the ageing installation could not be brought into compliance with European safety standards, RTBF reports. The operator, SA Citadelle de Dinant, has selected the French cable-mobility group MND to build the new installation, keeping the existing route unchanged.

Context

Perched on a rocky spur more than 100 metres above the Meuse, the Citadel of Dinant is one of Wallonia’s flagship tourist sites. The cable car, first conceived in 1956, has for nearly seven decades offered visitors a signature alternative to the famous 408-step staircase built in 1577. The site has been privately owned by the de Villenfagne family since the late 1940s and is operated by Citadelle de Dinant SA — an unusual arrangement for a heritage landmark.

Key Developments

According to L’Avenir, renovation work planned for the winter of 2025-2026 proved more extensive than expected and ultimately impossible to carry out. “European standards prohibited us from continuing operation. We were condemned to carry out a very major renovation,” said Marc de Villenfagne, managing director of Citadelle de Dinant SA. “We have just chosen the constructor, who has notably already handled the Huy cable car. In the coming months, we will plan the whole worksite, starting with obtaining the various permits. The cable of the old cable car and everything that was easily removable have already been taken out. What remains is to demolish the stations, which will have to be modified. The route of the cable car will not change.”

MND’s official announcement confirms the contract, describing a jig-back (to-and-fro) system spanning 167 metres with a vertical drop of 88 metres. The new installation will run at 3.5 metres per second, carry two cabins of 23 places each, and move up to 570 people per hour. The project, developed with Lyon-based design studio Avant Première, is intended to blend visually into the Mosan valley while remaining visible from across the town.

The operation will be financed entirely through private funding, with the cost described as running “into the millions” of euros, according to de Villenfagne.

Analysis & Implications

The closure has come at a cost. Since the cable car shut down, visitor numbers to the Citadel have fallen by 30 to 35 percent. The operator recorded 340,000 visitors in 2025 but expects to end 2026 beyond the 200,000 mark. Visitors arriving from the town centre must instead climb the 408 steps.

“We lose therefore all the elderly people or those with difficulty moving, as well as parents with pushchairs,” de Villenfagne said. “The augmented-reality visit of the citadel (L’HistoPad) has allowed us to soften these losses.”

MND, based in Sainte-Hélène-du-Lac in Savoie, positions the contract as a strategic consolidation of its Belgian footprint. The group delivered the new urban and tourist cable car in nearby Huy in 2024 for the City and the Walloon Government. “With this new project, which echoes the one carried out by MND in the neighbouring town of Huy, MND officially becomes the number one cable transport supplier in Belgium,” said Edouard Barret, commercial director of the MND Group.

The project also underscores a wider trend: privately funded infrastructure investment filling gaps left where public renovation budgets and shifting European safety rules make retaining legacy equipment unviable. For a family-owned heritage site, the decision to rebuild rather than repair is both a financial commitment and a statement about long-term ambitions.

What’s Next

Preparatory work is already under way, with the old cable and removable elements removed and the demolition or modification of the stations still to come. The coming months will be dominated by permitting and detailed construction planning, and no precise reopening date has yet been communicated. What remains clear is that the cable car’s route — and its role as the Citadel’s emblematic access point — will endure.