The fortress city of Namur

One of the excellent views from the citadel of Namur.

I have long delayed documenting one of the cities I visited on August 14th.  Like Liege, in the 19th century the city of Namur was reinforced by a ring of fortresses in order to prevent armies from marching through Belgium on their way to other conquests.  Overall, at least nowadays, Namur is a smaller and somewhat ore picturesque city than Liege and seems more dominated by its central citadel and surrounding hills.

I obviously visited a bit early on the schedule as the siege of Namur began on the 20th of August, which also happened to be the day that Brussels was occupied by Germany.  I chose to be in Brussels for the 20th, and so instead went early.  This siege only lasted until the 25th, as the Belgian army was already in retreat and the French army had already been defeated in nearby Charleroi.  In this battle, the Germans had been merciful to their troops and did not order infantry attacks until the Belgian defenses had been significantly reduced.  As a result the Belgians suffered for more casualties than the Germans, whose losses were negligible in comparison.

In addition to directions to the ring of forts around the city,
there are also directions to something called "Parlemerde".

The citadel in the center is actually very old, going as far back as the Romans.  It sits atop a big hill that has been carved out by the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers.  The main bastion is cut off from the rest of the hill by a big chasm, which I don't know if it is natural or man made.  I ascended from the river confluence along its imposing walls.

The citadel had a few permanent information plaques added to it, including an interesting set of directions pointing you to the location of the forts surrounding the city.

There was a small exhibit in the citadel detailing the attack on the fort.  It was not extravagant, just a handful of information signs posted in a small clearing.  It contained many interesting photos from Namur during the war, and pictures of documents details communiques from both the Belgian and German governments to the city.  It also contained an abundance of information, all of it carefully encoded in French.  By this time, my French language skills improved... or more precisely, my lack from French language skills diminished, so I was able to surprisingly get the gist of what it was saying.  I have not seen anything written about it on line, but unless I'm mistaken (and it's likely I am) there were a few very severe hits on the citadel itself by German artillery.  Again, this illustrates how much better Germany performed against Namur than Liege, keeping in mind that Liege was utterly defeated.

From a series of metal pieces installed in a one of the
citadel tunnels.

There was also a few artwork installations around the top, plus a nice (and rather pricy) cafe where I was able to sit for coffee and be a tourist for a time before returning to my car and from there to Liege again for the commemoration of Fort Loncin.