Dinant

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Dinant
Dinant wapen.svg Flag of Dinant.svg
Dinant (Namur)
Dinant
Dinant
State : BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Region : Wallonia
Province : Namur
District : Dinant
Coordinates : 50 ° 15 ′  N , 4 ° 55 ′  E Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′  N , 4 ° 55 ′  E
Area : 99.80 km²
Residents: 13,451 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density: 135 inhabitants per km²
Post Code: 5500-5504
Prefix: 082
Mayor: Richard Fournaux

Local government address : 		Rue Grande 112
5500 Dinant
Website: www.dinant.be
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Dinant [ di.nɑ̃ ] is a city in the province of Namur in the Walloon Region , Belgium . The city is known nationwide for its Notre-Dame church with an ornate westwork and the fortress above . Dinant is the birthplace of Adolphe Sax , the inventor of the saxophone .

geography

At Dinant, the Meuse breaks through the Ardennes in a rocky valley . Dinant has 13,451 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) and covers an area of ​​99.8 square kilometers.

history

Road from Dinant towards France, in the background the famous rocks

In the first centuries after Christ, the area belonged to the Roman Empire. In the district of Furfooz there was a hilltop settlement from the Migration Period , which was protected by a stone wall. The hill fortress was inhabited by a small number of Germanic warriors and their families in the late 4th century and thereafter, who were probably charged with defending the imperial borders.

The importance of Dinant in the Middle Ages was based on the brass craft that had flourished since the 12th century . The basis for this was the nearby deposits of calamine , a zinc-containing mineral that was processed into brass with imported copper and then exported to France, England and Germany. Because of the trade in copper from Scandinavia and the Harz Mountains , Dinant belonged to the Hanseatic League and was also represented in the London Stalhof . Dinanderie was already a synonym for certain brass goods in 14th century Paris . Documents and traditions say that brass was smelted in Dinant, as well as manufactured and sold in the form of sheet metal, cast and hammered goods.

In 1466, Charles the Bold's troops destroyed Dinant. As a result, many copper masters (better: copper and brass bats , batteurs ) such as the Amya , Momma or Byda families left the city, settled in other cities in the Meuse valley or moved towards Aachen , where they built up a flourishing trade and settled in one Organized guild .

At the beginning of the First World War , on August 23, 1914, 674 inhabitants of the city were killed by Saxon troops of the imperial German army because of alleged rioting and 750 buildings were destroyed (→ Massacre of Dinant ). Several monuments commemorate the fate of these people. In 2001 the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Germany recognized its moral obligation and officially apologized to the descendants of the victims at the time.

traffic

The city on the banks of the Meuse with the church on the right and the rock in the background

Dinant train station is on the Athus-Meuse line , there are intercity connections to Brussels and Namur , as well as regional trains to the Ardennes (on the aforementioned route to Libramont-Chevigny and Arlon ). In the past, the river was used to ship goods from the brass works and to deliver the necessary materials. Since the late 1980s there has been excursion boat traffic to neighboring towns and attractions from the port in town. For this purpose there is a lock on the southern outskirts of the city on the Meuse .

Special places and remarkable buildings

Notre-Dame collegiate church and the bridge over the Meuse
  • Notre-Dame de Dinant Collegiate Church (Collégiale Notre-Dame de Dinant), built between the 13th and 14th centuries, is considered an important legacy of Wallonia
  • Citadel of Dinant , built 1818–1821 at the instigation of the Dutch; stands on a rock 100 meters above the level of the Meuse.
    The citadel was converted into a museum after World War II .
  • Bayardfelsen , an extraordinary rock needle in the south of the city.
    According to legend, the rock was split 40 meters deep by a hoof of the horse Bayard. Charlemagne had escaped on horseback .
  • Sax fountain and the art projects of the painted saxophones on the Maas bridge
  • Notre-Dame de Leffe Abbey, built in 1152 on the outskirts of the city. The monastery is home to a Premonstratensian community and is the namesake of the Leffe beer
  • Town hall from 1924 on the site of the residence of the Liège prince-bishop from 1700
  • a freedom and warrior monument on the town hall square
  • The fortified church of Saint-Lambert in the district of Bouvignes-sur-Meuse
  • The ruins of the Château de Crèvecoeur castle above the district of Bouvignes-sur-Meuse

Culinary specialties

  • Couque de Dinant , a hard gingerbread biscuit (forerunner of the Aachen Printen ) and
  • Flamiche , a salted flat cake with fatty cheese and eggs.

Personalities

Town twinning

Web links

Commons : Dinant  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Dinant in the Topographia Westphaliae (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Malcom Todd: The Time of the Migration Period. Konrad Theiss Verlag GMBH, Stuttgart, 2002. ISBN 3-8062-1723-8 (Translated into German by Tanja Ohlsen, Astrid Tillman; Original title: Migrants and Invaders-The Movement of Peoples in the Ancient World. Published by Tempus Publishing Inc., Charlestonm, England, 2001.)
  2. ↑ http://archives.lesoir.be/namur-luxembourg-tout-ce-week-end-on-marquera-le-nonant_t-20040821-Z0PNVW.html