Waterfalls of Coo, Waterfall in Stavelot, Belgium

The Waterfalls of Coo are a 15-metre drop on the Amblève in Stavelot, cut where the river once looped around Petit-Coo. The water leaves a straight stone ledge as one broad sheet, whitens as it falls and breaks into a churning pool over a pale brown shore. At the top centre it passes beneath a single-arch stone bridge carrying a small square tower with a pyramidal roof, a clock face and a window.

The small waterfall existed by the 15th century. In the 17th century monks cut through a meander of the Amblève on the orders of the prince-abbot of Stavelot-Malmedy to create the large fall, probably to protect Petit-Coo from flooding. The cut meander now holds the lower reservoir of the Coo–Trois-Ponts pumped-storage plant, whose upper basins lie 270 metres higher on the Brume hill.

The falls are managed by Studio 100 as part of Plopsa Coo, the amusement park facing them. The name Coo is also used for the river station and the TEC bus stop COO Cascade on line 42a, both next to the site.

A chairlift climbs to a belvedere above the falls with a view over the whole site and its surroundings. Coo station and the COO Cascade stop on TEC bus line 42a lie close by, and restaurants and the Coo Adventure operator are at the foot of the falls.

The cut-off meander below the falls holds the lower reservoir of the Coo–Trois-Ponts pumped-storage plant; its two upper basins lie 270 m higher on the Brume hill at Mont Saint-Victor in Trois-Ponts. The plant produces energy equivalent to one nuclear reactor.