Explore The Ardennes
Just 60km southeast of Brussels, NAMUR is a logical first stop if you’re heading into the Ardennes from the north or west, and is refreshingly clear of the industrial belts of Hainaut and Brabant. Many of Belgium’s towns and cities have suffered at the hands of invading armies and the same is certainly true of Namur, so much so that from the sixteenth century up until 1978, when the Belgian army finally moved out, Namur remained the quintessential military town, its sole purpose being the control of the strategically important junction of the rivers Sambre and Meuse. Generations of military engineers have pondered how to make Namur’s hilltop citadel impregnable – no one more so than Louis XIV’s Vauban – and the substantial remains of these past efforts are now the town’s main tourist attraction. Down below, the centre crowds the north bank of the River Sambre, its cramped squares and streets lined by big old mansions in the French style and sprinkled with several fine old churches and a handful of decent museums. There are some top-flight restaurants here too, but despite a substantial student presence, the nightlife is a little sedate, not that you’d guess if you visit during one of the town’s main festivals: in particular, the four-day Namur en Mai (wwww.namurenmai.be) packs the streets with jugglers, stilt-walkers and all sorts of spectaculars, and also showcases the talents of some internationally acclaimed performers.
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The Trésor du Prieuré d’Oignies
The Trésor du Prieuré d’Oignies
The pick of the town’s museums is also its smallest, the Trésor du Prieuré d’Oignies, housed in just one small room of a convent at rue Julie Billiart 17. It’s a unique collection that comprises examples of the exquisitely beautiful gold and silver work of Brother Hugo d’Oignies, one of the most gifted of the region’s medieval metalworkers. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century, the Meuse valley was famous for the skill of its craftsmen, who worked in an essentially Romanesque style but evolved a more naturalistic and dynamic approach to their subject matter, a characteristic of early Gothic. Hugo was an innovator in the art of filigree, raising the decoration from the background so that the tiny human figures and animals seem to be suspended in space; and niello, in which a black mixture of sulphur or lead is used to incise lines into the gold. The pieces here are elaborately studded with precious and semiprecious stones and display an exquisite balance between ornament and function, depicting minute hunting scenes, with animals leaping convincingly through delicate foliage, engraved with a Christian dedication, or embossed with a tiny picture of the artist offering up his art to God in worship. In particular, look out for the intricately worked double-crosses, the dazzling reliquary cover for St Peter’s rib, the charming songbird and goblet of St Marie of Oignies, and a magnificent cover for a Book of the Gospels. The free audio-guide in English helps to make sense of it all.
