Fort d'Emines
The fort d'Emines built between the villages of Emines and Saint-Marc, is one of 9 forts built between 1888 and 1892 around Namur in Belgium in conjunction with those of Liège, in order to defend the country's neutrality against French (or German, in the case of Liège) ambitions to use the Meuse valley to invade each other, flouting Belgian neutrality in the process.
All these forts were designed by General Henri Alexis Brialmont and feature unarmed concrete, a fairly innovative material at the time. It is positioned to the north of the city and is considered one of the smaller forts of the Namur belt.
Among the 9 forts, Émines is one of the two facilities not to have been rearmed between the wars as part of Namur's fortified position.
The site was used as an ammunition store (which is still visible at the light masonry barracks built in the ditch of salient II and III). Two bunkers were added to the central massif to reinforce the short-range defense of the building, which was given a second access in a counterscarp to facilitate the movement of the cart.
Photos : Alain Walthery
Text : wikipedia
