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The battle lost but history defeated Emperor Napoleon’s legacy can be found in surprising places all across Flanders
Toon Lambrechts More articles by Toon \ flanderstoday.eu
This month marks the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, after which Europe would never be the same. The emperor also left his mark in Flanders: from forts and canals to trees and beets.
N
apoleon Bonaparte, who always saw things big, left behind a series of buildings in Belgium that still stand today. And the Frenchman also lives on in folk tales. He visited Flanders, at the time called the Southern Netherlands, several times, including various trips to Ostend and Antwerp, two cities that were of great importance in his strategy against England. Napoleon’s passages in the region echo in many local folk tales. In May of 1810, for instance, he stayed in Bruges and made a trip to Sluis, now on the Dutch side of the border, to inspect the defence of the town in the estuary of the Scheldt. At one point he walked thoughtlessly through a group of children who were playing with their marbles. One of the children boldly snarled at him that he had ruined their game. Fortunately for the boy, Napoleon didn’t understand Dutch, and his guide was careful enough not to provide a translation. A year later, Napoleon travelled the same route to check how the defences along the coast were advancing. At what is now the Zwin nature reserve, then still a partially open watercourse, he was ferried by a boatman named Hennefreund. Napoleon asked the man how much of his precious time the crossing would take. Hennefreund made an estimate, and Napoleon – control freak that he was – timed the crossing on his watch. When the boatman’s estimate proved to be exactly correct, the emperor praised his punctuality and granted him an annual payment of 100 golden napoleons (the currency of the time). The region’s archives show that this premium was paid effectively until the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was also a builder, and his reign over Flanders has left many traces. One of the most famous is Fort Napoleon in Ostend, a massive pentagonal brick fortress in the dunes near the coastal city. Work began in 1811, and in 1814 the last stone was laid. By then, Napoleon had already suffered serious blows in Russia and Leipzig, and the fort was never used for military purposes. Until later: The Germans used it in their coastal defence during the Second World War. To the west of Ostend, a second, similar fort was under construction but wasn’t finished before the Battle of Waterloo. The British later finished it and called it Fort Wellington as a dig at the French. It was demolished after the Second World War to make way for the Wellington race track. In front of the MAS museum in Antwerp, meanwhile, lie the city’s two oldest docks, the Bonaparte and Willem docks. Both were dug at Napoleon’s behest and changed the nature of the harbour. Previously, Antwerp had been a river port, dependent on the tides, but the Frenchman saw things differently. Antwerp was, in his words, “a loaded gun pointed
© Toon Lambrechts
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