Sint Anna tunnel
The Sint- Anna-Tunnel (German: Sankt-Anna-Tunnel) is a listed pedestrian tunnel in the center of the Belgian city of Antwerp and crosses under the Scheldt .
history
After the First World War , on the left bank of the Scheldt opposite the historic city center, a dormitory town with high-rise buildings, but also row house settlements, was built. This new district was opened up in the 1930s with the Waasland tunnel, a road tunnel, and the Sint-Anna tunnel, as there are no bridges over the Scheldt in Antwerp so as not to interfere with shipping routes. Construction of the Sint-Anna tunnel began in 1931, and the inauguration took place on September 10, 1933, as was the case with the Waasland tunnel. During the Second World War , German troops severely damaged the Sint-Anna tunnel when they withdrew. The tunnel could not be inaugurated again until 1949. The tram has also been running since 1990under the Scheldt, the Van Eeden stop is on the left bank not far from the entrance to the Sint-Anna tunnel. The entire system of the Sint Anna tunnel is a listed building. In the entrance house in Linkeroever there is a photo exhibition with pictures from the construction phase in the 1930s and from the reconstruction after the Second World War.
Location and architecture
The entrance in Linkeroever is next to a commuter parking lot , on the other side of which is the Van Eeden metro station . The entrance on the side of the old town is at Sint-Jansvliet at the end of the south terrace at the transition from Ernest Van Dijck Kaai and Plantinkaai . The entrance buildings are made of yellow bricks. While the entrance house in Linkeroever stands alone in a green area from its surroundings, the entrance house in the old town is hardly noticeable in the middle of much taller buildings on Sint-Jansvliet.
Two wooden escalators from the 1930s lead to the tunnel floor, bringing users 31 meters below the surface. The tube begins at the bottom with an inner diameter of 4.30 meters and a length of 572 meters. The tunnel is therefore considerably longer than the width of the Scheldt, as it only ends beyond the security walls that are built on the old town side to contain the river during storm surges. The tunnel has also been used by bicycle since the 1990s, thanks to a large freight elevator.
Web links
- Entry in the Antwerp Tourist Guide (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Margarete Graf: Antwerp - Bruges - Gent . Dumont-Reiseverlag Ostfildern 2009 ISBN 978-3-7701-6424-0 , page 43.
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 0 ″ N , 4 ° 24 ′ 0 ″ E