Saturday, November 11, 2017

Belgium: Dinant

Last Friday I got three postcards from Belgium.

One of them shows Dinant. Dinant is a city in Wallonia. Two important sights of the city are the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and the Citadel. Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, was born in Dinant in 1814. 

During the German invasion of Belgium in World War I Dinant was fought between French and German in 1914. Charles de Gaulle was wounded during the battle. On 23rd August 1914 674 inhabitants were summarily executed by the German Army and within a month some five thousand Belgian and French civilians were killed by the Germans at numerous similar occasions. It was the biggest massacre committed by the Germans in 1914 and contributed greatly to the propagandistic image of the Rape of Belgium.


With a matching stamp:
Centenary of World War I (from set of five) (issued 23-10-2017)
with First Day Special Postmark


Thank You very much Gerda!

No comments:

Post a Comment