Fort de Saint-Héribert

The Fort de St-Héribert or the Fort de Wépion is one of nine forts built as part of the Fortifications of Namur in the late 19th century in Belgium. It was built between 1888 and 1892 according to the plans of General Henri Alexis Brialmont. Contrasting with the French forts built in the same era by Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, the fort was built exclusively of unreinforced concrete, a new material, rather than masonry. In 1914 the fort was heavily bombarded by German artillery in the Battle of Namur. Maizeret was upgraded in the 1930s to become part of the fortified position of Namur in an attempt to forestall or slow an attack from Germany. It saw action in 1940 during the Battle of Belgium, and was captured by German forces. The fort now belongs to the private Fondation Emile Legros. The foundation has already unearthed the main entrance and other areas.

Text adapted from “Fort de Saint-Héribert” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort de Saint-Héribert ranks #4,269 of 5,793 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #75 of the 83 mapped in Belgium. Founded 1888, it is older than 5% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 407 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. See how Belgium compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗