The Contrast of Beauty and a Terrible History

Dinant is beautiful.  Absolutely gorgeous.  A wonderful old town stretched out about 2km long by 200m wide as it squeezes between the river and the cliffs.  There's a castle, lovely houses and lots to see and do.  Aldophe Sax, inventor of the Saxophone was born here and the town celebrates with giant sax statues everywhere, each painted by a different country.  Loads of tourists turn up every day and wander happily around.  And here we were, moored right in the middle.  We liked it so much that we stayed 3 nights and spent a lot of time just admiring the view. 

We were moored by a large statue of Charles de Gaulle and that got us investigating.  In August 1914, the German army came down the pass in the cliffs to cross the river.  They had just decided to ignore Belgian neutrality and were passing through on their way to France.  But the French army were there to defend the bridge including a young Lt de Gaulle who was injured doing so.  Several days fighting ensued and the Germans eventually prevailed.  But they took losses and believed some of these were caused by civilians and considered that unbecoming.  On 23rd August they rounded up 674 of these 'terrorists' and shot them.  The youngest terrorist was 3 weeks and the oldest 88 years.  They burned the town and deported more civilians.  There's a moving memorial that records all the names and ages of what it describes as 'victims of German barbarism'.  And it took until 2001 when a German Minister laid a wreath there before they allowed the German flag to join the other EU ones on the bridge.  The troubled history of Dinant continued with the town until occupation until 1918.  And it then fell again swiftly in June 1940.  The Americans liberated it in September 1944 and it almost fell again in the 'Battle of the Bulge' when British troops stopped the German counter-offensive just outside the town on 24th December 1944.  Dinant deserves its peaceful life now and I hope all those tourists spend lots of money there - especially the German ones!

But Dinant is a happy town today and lovely place to spend a few days.  Lots of tourists came to wave and take photos.  And we even had this friendly Egyptian Goose on the front of the boat!

Comments

  1. Alan and Rosie31 May 2019 at 11:23

    Very ,very interesting folks. At first I was a little confused because there is a lovely town in Brittany called Dinan where we have stayed a couple of times in years gone by. Interesting too to read about German barbarity even in the first world war. Shocking. Dinant, however, seems to have recovered well and sounds like a beautiful place.
    Love reading about your travels.

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