At a height of 87 metres (285 ft), it dominates the city of Mons, Belgium, which is itself constructed on a hill.

This belfry, classified in Belgium since 15 January 1936, belongs to the major cultural patrimony of Wallonia.

[1] It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 1 December 1999, for its unique architecture, civic importance, and testimony to the birth of municipal influence and power in the area.

This belfry is both a prestigious construction and a functional building as it served to warn in case of fire or, during the Second World War, to give alerts against incoming bombardments.

From the top of the building, the battlefield of the Battle of Mons can be observed, as well as the Borinage, the plains of the Haine and the hills and hillocks at the side of it, the cement factories and the terrils of the old coal mines of the "Levant of Mons" in Bray (Binche).