In the 19th Century, Spa was a magnet for Europe’s elite, as kings, emperors, counts and tsars gathered at its hot springs which have been famous since Roman times. Spa was above all known at the time as the Café de l’Europe.

You could really liken it to the Saint Tropez of its day. Visitors could well have come across Emperor Joseph II playing cards with the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in the salons of the world’s first ever casino, the Redoute, which opened in 1762. Other well-known patrons of the Café de l’Europe included Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Giacomo Meyebeer, and the list goes on…

Two hundred years’ later, Spa is just as resplendent in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes and continues to be known across the globe, to a large extent thanks to its excellent circuit – Spa-Francorchamps – which nestles in a landscape of rolling hills.

Motor racing, however, isn’t the only showcase for the town. On July 6, Spa hosted a stage of the 2010 Tour de France cycle race, one of the world’s most famous sporting events and broadcast in 183 countries. That said, its recent visit to Spa will mainly be remembered for the appalling weather that greeted competitors there and for the slippery roads that seriously dented the chances of several favourites.

Meanwhile, the 2010 calendar of the circuit itself is extremely busy, including many major fixtures, such as a round of the World Series by Renault plus the 1,000km de Spa-Francorchamps in May, this weekend’s 24 Hours of Spa and the Formula 1 Grand Prix in August, not to mention a packed diary of club and motorcycle racing events.

The 24 Hours of Spa was organised for the first time in 1924, a year after the inaugural Le Mans 24 Hours. It is consequently the world’s second oldest 24-hour endurance race and was a leading round of the former Sportscar World Championship. Like its counterpart organised at the nearby Nürburgring, in Germany, Spa’s 24-hour race doesn’t enjoy the same aura as Le Mans, but it continues to be a big draw for north European motor racing fans.

24 heures de Spa