Combining landscapes of water and greenery, the Land of Stenay is crossed from South to North by the gentle valley of the Meuse and its rich meadows. To the west, it is crossed by the Côtes de Meuse, while to the east extends the vast and deep forest of Woëvre; to the north-west finally flows the Chiers and rise the last foothills of the Côtes de Moselle, which lean on the nearby Ardennes.
Stenay was first Celtic, then Gallo-Roman before becoming a royal Merovingian city in the 7th century. Residence of the last Merovingian king Dagobert II, of which a permanent exhibition room traces the memory near the Tourist Office, "Stenay Lorraine", still called Asthenidum then Sathanacum in the Middle Ages, was one of the most powerful strongholds of the valley of the Meuse after Sedan. Stenay was owned successively by Godefroy de Bouillon, the Dukes of Lorraine then by the Prince of Condé who connected with the Fronde, which led to the capture and dismantling of the city, ordered by Louis XIV in 1689. Some superb buildings that belonged to in the citadel still bear witness to this today, including the one housing the Beer Museum. Stenay then turned into an important bourgeois and industrial, military and cultural town. Having become French, the city nevertheless remained on the border and suffered all invasions; but the wars of 1870, 14-18 and 39-45 miraculously spared it.
- Nearby towns:
- Sedan: at 33 km
- Charleville-Mézières: at 58 km
- Luxembourg: at 70 km
- Reims: at 103 km
- Metz: 110 km
- Nancy: 174 km
- Brussels: 206 km
- Paris: 250 km
- Access:
- By road: RD 947 (Montmédy - Vouziers) - RD 964 (Verdun - Charleville).
- By bus: Charleville-Sedan-Stenay (information on +33 3 24 33 77 77) - Verdun-Stenay line (information on +33 3 29 86 02 71).
- By waterway: Canal de l'Est North branch (information on +33 3 29 86 02 47).
- City of Stenay: Tel. : +33 3 29 80 30 31 - Email: mairie@stenay.fr
- Tourist Office - Meuse Mountains and Valleys: Tel. : +33 3 29 80 64 22 or +33 3 29 80 62 59 - Email: bonjour@montsetvalleesdemeuse.com
- Tourist information office of Stenay - Harbor master's office - Rue du Port - 55700 Stenay. Open Monday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Only in the afternoon on Sundays and public holidays. From April to the end of September. By appointment in low season.