Sambre

• 1. Introduction

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  The Sambre is a river that ends its journey in Namur, the capital of Wallonia in Belgium. There it joins the Meuse, arriving from the left bank. Its route begins in northern France and crosses into Belgium. Along the way it touches ground that has been mined, fought over and canalised. Why did armies keep returning to its banks? How was a river turned into a stepped channel for barges? And what remains of the industry that once made its valley famous? The answers begin with a spring in the Aisne and follow the water downstream.

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• 2. Source to Meuse

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  Near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Aisne department of northern France, the Sambre has its source. From Barzy-en-Thiérache it moves into the Nord department. There it passes Landrecies, Aulnoye-Aymeries, Hautmont and Maubeuge. Across the border it enters the Belgian province of Hainaut, where Thuin, Montigny-le-Tilleul and Charleroi lie on its course. The last stretch runs through the province of Namur, past Floreffe and into the provincial capital itself. In Landrecies the Sambre stops being only a river and starts working as a road for barges.

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• 3. Locks and Barges

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  Nine locks, each 38.50 metres long and 5.20 metres wide, mark the French stretch of the navigable Sambre. That stretch runs 54 kilometres. It starts at Landrecies, where the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise meets the river, and ends at the Belgian border at Jeumont. The canal links to the central French waterway network, or it did until 2006. In that year navigation was interrupted after structural failures. In Belgium the river is canalised in two distinct sections that together cover 88 kilometres and 17 locks. The first section, the Haute-Sambre, is 39 kilometres long. Its 10 locks match the French dimensions, and it runs down to the industrial town of Charleroi. The rest of the Belgian river was rebuilt to European Class IV dimensions in the years right after World War II. That standard takes barges of 1350 tonnes. Two agencies now look after the water. Voies Navigables de France manages it on the French side. On the Belgian side the task belongs to the Service Public Wallon, through its directorate for mobility and inland waterways. These locks and larger barges served a region whose character was set by what lay beside the water.

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• 4. Industrial Backbone

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  Coal gave this valley its reputation. The Franco-Belgian coal basin, which the Sambre crosses, was formerly an important industrial district. Today all coal mining has ceased, and the steel industry has declined. Yet the river still sits at the western end of the sillon industriel. That belt of industry remains the backbone of Wallonia's economy. Long before the mines closed, though, these banks had been a place where armies met.

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• 5. Battles on the Banks

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  Fleurus, a suburb of Charleroi on the Sambre's north bank, gave its name to three important battles. The first came in 1622, during the Thirty Years' War. The second followed in 1690, in the Nine Years' War. The third took place on the 26th of June 1794. It was the most significant battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries, fought during the French Revolutionary Wars. Fighting spread across both banks of the river. It crowned a campaign in which armies crossed and re-crossed the Sambre several times. In World War I the river saw heavy fighting again. In 1914 the siege of Namur formed part of the Battle of Charleroi. In the last month of the war came the Battle of the Sambre in 1918. One more battle story is tied to this river, though it has long been set aside.

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• 6. Legend and Loss

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  In 57 BC, according to a 19th-century theory, Julius Caesar fought a Belgic confederation on the Sambre. That theory was discarded a long time ago. It is still repeated today. A far more personal event took place on the 24th of February 1912. On that day Regina Magritte drowned herself in the river at Châtelet. She was the mother of the surrealist painter René Magritte. Her son became famous, so the river touches a name many listeners already know.

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