Dinant

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Dinant
Municipality
The citadel, the collegiate church and the Meuse
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Dinant
Dinant Location in Belgium Location of Dinant in Namur MR, ID!)
• Governing party/ies	ID! - Dinant - Dinant Autrement
Area
• Total	100.05 km2 (38.63 sq mi)
Population  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	13,544
• Density	140/km2 (350/sq mi)
Postal codes	5500, 5501, 5502, 5503, 5504
NIS code	91034
Area codes	082
Website	www.dinant.be

Dinant (French pronunciation:

The municipality consists of the following districts: Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dinant, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes and Thynes.

Geography

Dinant is positioned in the Upper Meuse valley, at a point where the river cuts deeply into the western Condroz plateau. Sited in a steep sided valley, between the rock face and the river. The original settlement had little space in which to grow away from the river, and it therefore expanded into a long, thin town, on a north–south axis, along the river shore. During the 19th century, the former Île des Batteurs (Drummers' Island) to the south was attached directly to the town when a branch of the Meuse was filled in.

Dinant has been enriched by the agricultural opportunities presented by the fertile land on the plateau that overlooks it. Within the town,

In the 11th century, the emperor Henry IV granted several rights over Dinant to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, including market and justice rights. From that time on, the city became one of the 23 ‘‘bonnes villes’’ (or principal cities) of the Prince-Bishopric. The first stone bridge on the Meuse and major repair to the castle, which had been built earlier, also date from the end of the 11th century. Throughout this period, and until the end of the 18th century, Dinant shared its history with its overlord Liège, sometimes rising in revolt against it, sometimes partaking in its victories and defeats, mostly against the neighbouring County of Namur.

Late Middle Ages

Its strategic location on the

Late Medieval Dinant and Bouvignes specialised in metalwork, producing finely cast and finished objects in a silvery brass alloy, called dinanderie and supplying aquamaniles, candlesticks, patens and other altar furniture throughout the Meuse valley (giving these objects their cautious designation "Mosan"), the Rhineland and beyond.

Henri Pirenne gained his doctorate in 1883 with a thesis on medieval Dinant.

The Old Regime and World War I

In the 16th and 17th centuries wars between

The city suffered devastation again at the beginning of the

• The city's landmark is the
  Collegiate Church of Notre Dame de Dinant. It was rebuilt in Gothic style
  on its old foundations after falling rocks from the adjacent cliff partially destroyed the former Romanesque style church in 1227. Several stages for a pair of towers on the west end were completed before the project was abandoned in favour of the present central tower with a famous onion dome and facetted multi-staged lantern.
• Above the church rises the vertical flank of the rocher surmounted by the fortified Citadel of Dinant that was first built in the 11th century to control the Meuse valley. The Prince-Bishopric of Liège rebuilt and enlarged it in 1530; the French destroyed it in 1703. Its present aspect, with the rock-hewn stairs (408 steps), is due to rebuilding in 1821, during the United Kingdom of the Netherlands phase of Dinant's chequered history. A cable car is available during the high season to take visitors from the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame to the top of the Citadel.
• Apart from the main block is the Rocher Bayard that was said to have been split by giant hoof of
  Louis XIV
  after the conquest of Dinant in order to construct a road alongside the Meuse.
• The house of
  saxophones
  .

• 
  From the North
• 
  Dinant towards the south, seen from the citadel
• 
  Dinant from Tourist Office
• 
  Dinant in 1892, by Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller
• 
  2019 Panorama Dinant
• 
  View of Dinant by Tetar van Elven.^{[need quotation to verify]}

Gastronomic culture

• The Flamiche dinantaise is the local version of quiche made with a cheese called "boulette de Romedenne".
• The couque de Dinant is Europe's hardest biscuit, with a honey-sweetened flavour that is impressed with a carved wooden mould before baking.
• The beer brand Leffe originates from Dinant and there is a museum there.

Transport

Dinant's railway station is on the left bank of the river. There is hourly train service to Brussels, about a 90-minute ride.^[3]

Healthcare

Dinant hosts the Saint-Vincent and Saint-Anne sites (Centre Hospitalier de Dinant) of the

Notable people

• David of Dinant, philosopher (birth in Dinant is uncertain, 12th century)
• landscape painter
• Antoine Joseph Wiertz
  , painter (19th century)
• Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (19th century)
• Georges Pire, priest of the Dominican Order and Nobel Peace Prize
  recipient for 1958
• André-Eugène Pirson (Dinant, 21 March 1817-Brussels, 28 December 1881), governor of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) from 1877 until 1881
• André Buzin, artist and stamp designer (20th century)
• Alex Miskirtchian, boxer

Twin cities and twinning

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•  Philippines: Cagayan de Oro
•  England: Hoddesdon, England
•  Greece: Chios
•  France: Dinan
•  France: Disneyland Paris^[4]

See also

• Rape of Belgium
• Auxbrebis

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dinant.

• Dinant travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official web site in French, Dutch, and English
• Dinant groups on Flickr
• Dinant Cultural Center
• Citadel of Dinant: Official web site
• Map of Dinant with localisation of Adolphe Sax House