Signal de Botrange, Mountain summit in Province of Liege, Belgium
Signal de Botrange is a 694-metre summit on the High Fens plateau in the province of Liège, the highest point in Belgium. A stone and earth mound, the Butte Baltia, rises in terraces from the roadside; a staircase with metal handrails climbs to a small railed platform, and a white sign on a pole reads "Signal de Botrange". A stone tower built in 1934 stands nearby.
Botrange became Belgian after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, taking the highest-point title from Baraque Michel. In 1923 military governor Herman Baltia had a six-metre signal built on the summit, reached by a staircase, so the new territory could be surveyed and symbolically attain 700 metres. A stone tower followed in 1934, reaching 718 metres.
The summit marks a linguistic border between Romance and Germanic languages, with sources of several rivers flowing into the Mosan basin.
The N68 road leads directly to a large car park at the summit, so no hike is needed to reach the highest point. Bus lines 390 and 394 of the TEC Liège-Verviers network serve the site. The Botrange nature centre, with the Hautes-Fagnes–Eifel park house and an exhibition on the fagne, lies one kilometre south and is a starting point for walks.
The summit's weather station was replaced in 1999 by an automatic station of the Royal Meteorological Institute, installed at Mont Rigi between the signal and Baraque Michel. The site also holds a Tranchot boundary stone and a T.P. marker among its listed heritage.
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