Diest Walking Tour: Beguines, Punk, and a Crater on Mars

Diest is a small Belgian city that refuses to be summarised simply. On this walking tour, you'll trace its thousand-year story through colours – from the orange of a dynasty that shaped its streets to the gold of a Paralympic champion who became its first honorary citizen.

The tour starts at Diest railway station and leads you across the River Demer into the old town. You'll follow the green ramparts of 19th-century fortifications, pass through the UNESCO-listed Begijnhof with its 17th-century Baroque gateway, and cross the Grote Markt – imagined back in 1460, alive with cattle, woad-dyed cloth, and the locked box of true scarlet worth more than a week's wages.

Along the way, you'll hear how the Demer made this city possible, carrying grain, beer, and timber for centuries; how the medieval Cloth Hall sealed Diest's reputation across European markets; and how a boy from Diest sailed to Brazil for a change of scenery and ended up with a crater on Mars named after him. The tour ends at Diest railway station, where it began – but with a very different sense of what this place contains.

On this 75-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Hear how 13-year-old Philip William, son of William the Silent, was seized on the road to Leuven and held in a Spanish prison for 28 years
• Walk the Boerenkrijgplein ravelin, site of a desperate November escape across flooded fields in 1798
• Explore Saint Catherine's Church, the limewashed heart of the Beguinage community
• Discover the Ezeldijkmolen, a 16th-century watermill that ground grain and bark until 1946
• Hear how a boy from Diest sailed to Brazil for a change of scenery and ended up with a crater on Mars named after him
• Stand before the Holle Griet, a five-tonne 15th-century bombard that – despite its fearsome appearance – only ever fired celebratory salvos
• Learn how Diest punk band The Scabs became Belgium's answer to The Clash, fronted by a man now sitting on the town council
• Hear about Marieke Vervoort, the Beast from Diest, who won gold in London and silver in Rio, yet lived with constant pain
• Follow the restored Demer riverside walk, reopened in 2009 after decades of neglect

Diest rewards the curious – bring comfortable shoes and allow time to linger.