Namur
The Sambre in Namur city centre
Flag Coat of arms of Namur Coat of arms
Namur Location in Belgium
Coordinates: 50°28′N 04°52′E / 50.467°N 4.867°E / 50.467; 4.867
Country	Belgium
Region	Wallonia
Community	French Community
Province	Namur
Arrondissement	Namur
Government
• Mayor	Maxime Prévot (CDH)
• Governing party/ies	CDH-Ecolo-MR
Area
• Total	175.69 km2 (67.83 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2011)[1]
• Total	109,765
• Density	620/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Demographics
• Foreigners	5.89% (7 January 2005)
Postal codes	5000-5101
Area codes	081
Website	www.ville.namur.be
Map of Namur

Namur (French pronunciation: [namyʁ], Dutch:  Namen (help·info), Nameur in Walloon) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and (since 1986) of Wallonia.

Namur stands at the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers and straddles three different regions - Hesbaye to the north, Condroz to the south-east and Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse to the south-west. The language spoken is French.

The City of Namur includes the old communes of Beez, Belgrade, Saint-Servais, Saint-Marc, Bouge, Champion, Daussoulx, Flawinne, Malonne, Suarlée, Temploux, Vedrin, Boninne, Cognelée, Gelbressée, Marche-les-Dames, Dave, Jambes, Naninne, Wépion, Wierde, Erpent, Lives-sur-Meuse, and Loyers.

History[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Namur, the Meuse, the Walloon Parliament and the citadel

Namur from the Citadel of Namur above the city

The town began as an important trading settlement in Celtic times, straddling east-west and north-south trade routes across the Ardennes. The Romans established a presence after Julius Caesar defeated the local Aduatuci tribe.

Namur came to prominence during the early Middle Ages when the Merovingians built a castle or citadel on the rocky spur overlooking the town at the confluence of the two rivers. In the 10th century it became a county in its own right. The town developed somewhat unevenly, as the counts of Namur could only build on the north bank of the Meuse - the south bank was owned by the bishops of Liège and developed more slowly into the town of Jambes (now effectively a suburb of Namur). In 1262, Namur fell into the hands of the Count of Flanders, and was purchased by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1421.

After Namur became part of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1640s, its citadel was considerably strengthened. Louis XIV of France invaded in 1692, capturing the town and annexing it to France. His renowned military engineer Vauban rebuilt the citadel. French control was short-lived, as William III of Orange-Nassau captured Namur only three years later in 1695 during the War of the Grand Alliance. Under the Barrier Treaty of 1709, the Dutch gained the right to garrison Namur, although the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 gave control of the formerly Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian House of Habsburg. Thus, although the Austrians ruled the town, the citadel was controlled by the Dutch. It was rebuilt again under their tenure.

France invaded the region again in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars, and again annexed Namur, imposing a repressive regime. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna incorporated what is now Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgium broke away from the Netherlands in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, and Namur continued to be a major garrison town under the new government. The citadel was rebuilt yet again in 1887.

Namur was a major target of the German invasion of Belgium in 1914, which sought to use the Meuse valley as a route into France. Despite being billed as virtually impregnable, the citadel fell after only three days' fighting and the town was occupied by the Germans for the rest of the war. Namur fared little better in World War II; it was in the front lines of both the Battle of the Ardennes in 1940 and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The town suffered heavy damage in both wars.

Namur continued to host the Belgian Army's paratroopers until their departure in 1977.

Economy[link]

Namur, the Meuse, the Jambes bridge and the citadel.

Namur is an important commercial and industrial centre, located on the Walloon industrial backbone, the Sambre and Meuse valley. It produces machinery, leather goods, metals and porcelain.^{[citation needed]} It is also an important railway junction situated on the north-south line between Brussels and Luxembourg City, and the east-west line between Lille and Liège. River barge traffic passes through the middle of the city along the Meuse.

Culture and sights[link]

Namur has taken on a new role as the capital of the federal region of Wallonia. Its location at the head of the Ardennes has also made it a popular tourist centre, with a casino located in its southern district on the left bank of the Meuse.

The town's most prominent sight is the citadel, now demilitarised and open to the public. It plays host to a beer festival at Easter. Namur also has a distinctive 18th century cathedral dedicated to Saint Aubain and a belfry classified by UNESCO as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France which are listed as a World Heritage Site.^[2]

The Couvent des Soeurs de Notre-Dame contains masterpieces of Mosan art by Hugo d'Oignies. Elsewhere there is an archeological museum and a museum dedicated to Félicien Rops.

St Aubin's Cathedral is the only academic Late Baroque cathedral in Belgium

An odd Namurois custom is the annual Combat de l'Échasse d'Or (Fight for the Golden Stilt), held on the third Sunday in September. Two teams, the Mélans and the Avresses, dress in medieval clothes while standing on stilts and do battle in one of the town's principal squares.^{[citation needed]}

The belfry.

Namur possesses a distinguished university, the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP), also referred to as University of Namur, founded in 1831.

Since 1986 Namur has been home to the Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film.^[3] A jazz (Nam'in'Jazz) and a rock (Verdur Rock) festivals also take place yearly in Namur.

The local football team is named Union Royale Namur.

Sights near Namur include Maredsous Abbey, Floreffe Abbey, and Annevoie Castle with its surrounding Jardins d'Annevoie.

Namur, the citadel and the Meuse.

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

Namur is twinned with:

References[link]

Sources[link]

• (French) Jean-Pol Hiernaux : Namur, capitale de la Wallonie, in Encyclopédie du Mouvement wallon, Tome II, Charleroi, Institut Jules Destrée, 2000, ISBN 2-87035-019-8 (or 2d ed., CD-ROM, 2003, ISBN 2-87035-028-7)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Namur

• The municipal website of The City of Namur (in French)
• Namur Tourism

v t e Municipalities in the Province of Namur Dinant Anhée Beauraing Bièvre Ciney Dinant Gedinne Hamois Hastière Havelange Houyet Onhaye Rochefort Somme-Leuze Vresse-sur-Semois Yvoir Namur Andenne Assesse Éghezée Fernelmont Floreffe Fosses-la-Ville Gembloux Gesves Jemeppe-sur-Sambre La Bruyère Mettet Namur Ohey Profondeville Sambreville Sombreffe Philippeville Cerfontaine Couvin Doische Florennes Philippeville Viroinval Walcourt

Namur may refer to:

• Namur (French, in Dutch: Namen) in Belgian context:
  • Namur (city), a municipality and a city of Belgium, the capital of Wallonia
  • Namur (province), a province in Wallonia, Belgium, named after the provincial capital city
  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Namur
  • County of Namur, where Namur refers to the province
• Namur, Wisconsin, USA, founded by Walloon immigrants
• Namur, Quebec, a place in Canada, originally settled by Walloon immigrants
• Namur (Montreal Metro), a metro station in Montreal
• Roi-Namur, in the Marshall Islands, historically known as Namur island
• HMS Namur, three ships of the Royal Navy
• Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California
• 3374 Namur (1980 KO) is a main-belt asteroid

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

St. Elisabeth's Church

St. Elisabeth's Church is a religious building in Marburg, Germany, built by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in honour of Elisabeth of Hungary. Her tomb made the church an important pilgrimage destination in the late Middle Ages.

Architecture[link]

Floor plan

St. Elisabeth's Church

The church is one of the earliest purely Gothic churches in German-speaking areas, and is held to be a model for the architecture of Cologne Cathedral. It is built from sandstone in a cruciform layout. The nave and its flanking aisles have a vaulted ceiling more than 20 m (66 ft) high. The triple quire consists of the Elisabeth quire, the High quire and the Landgrave quire. The crossing is separated from the nave by a stone rood screen. In earlier times, the front part of the church had been reserved for the Knights of the Order. The Elisabeth Church has two towers with an approximate height of 80 m (263 ft). The northern one is crowned by a star, the southern one by a knight. The Elisabeth Church served as an inspiration for St. Paul's Church of Strasbourg.

The Gothic shrine of Saint Elisabeth is the most important treasure of the church, but other pieces of sacral art are also exhibited.

History[link]

Main portal

Construction started in 1235, the year Elisabeth was canonized. The church was consecrated in 1283. However, the towers were not finished until 1340. The church was property of the Order of the Teutonic Knights; some buildings of the Order still exist near the church, among them the Deutschhausgut, which now houses the mineral collection and the department of geography of the Philipps University of Marburg.

Until the 16th century, the Landgraves of Hesse were buried in the church. In the context of the Reformation, Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse had the remains of Saint Elisabeth removed, in order to oust the pilgrims from the Protestant city of Marburg. Today, relics of Elisabeth can be found in the Elisabeth convent in Vienna, in the City Museum in Stockholm and in Košice.

Most of the monks converted to Protestantism during the 16th century, and the church was used for Protestant services. For a short time at the beginning of the 19th century, both Catholic mass and Protestant communion were celebrated in separate parts of the church.

After World War II, former German president Paul von Hindenburg and his wife were buried in the Elisabeth church, after the evacuation of their remains from the Tannenberg memorial in former East Prussia.

Current developments[link]

In order to start a long-needed renovation of the church and the remodeling of its immediate neighborhood, the Stiftung Heilige Elisabeth foundation was established in 2004 and supports the city of Marburg and the Protestant Church of Hesse-Kassel and Waldeck in the financing of the repair measures.

See also[link]

• Konrad von Marburg

References[link]

• Hermann Bauer: Sankt Elisabeth und die Elisabethkirche zu Marburg. Marburg, Hitzeroth 1990 ISBN 3-89616-031-1 (German)
• Andreas Köstler: Die Ausstattung der Marburger Elisabethkirche. Zur Ästhetisierung des Kultraums im Mittelalter. Berlin, Reimer 1995 ISBN 3-496-01134-3 (German)
• Eberhard Leppin: Die Elisabethkirche in Marburg an der Lahn. Königstein, Langwiesche 1999 ISBN 3-7845-2913-5 (German)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elisabethkirche, Marburg

• St. Elisabeth's Church (German)

Coordinates: 50°48′54″N 8°46′11″E / 50.815°N 8.76972°E / 50.815; 8.76972