12/1/09 - 1/1/10 - LandScope: Travel Diary of An Explorer

“Divo-Nanto” – Sacred Valley, DINANT, NAMUR

By zerrinhosgor - 12/18/2009 06:21:00 AM

Here was a really "Sacred Valley"

When we departed from autobahn to the local roads of Dinant, I hadn’t guessed to face with such a beautiful city. City was located in lower side of the area and we were driving to downward. When you enter the city, lots of old and traditional houses welcome you and city seems such a ghost town. I think it is related with the small population of the city. The upper parts of the city were not crowded so much and when you go down to the city center, you can see most of people strolling around.

When I saw the river, I was a little bit surprised because I hadn’t expected to see a water channel. You feel that you are in a small city with only some houses and shops located on both sides of narrow streets. City gives you that feeling while you walk in narrow and old streets. But these streets lead you to the large open area and“sacred river” at the end of them. Being surprised is a result of this unexpected atmosphere. When you reach to the “Sacred river", you really feel that you are in a different world. Streets lying near the river were full of cafes and restaurants . There were lots of people eating there.

I was looking at the river and cross side of it and after I decided to take a photo, I turned my back to the river and I saw the huge rock and a castle at the top of it and Notre-Dame cathedral in front of the huge rock. It was the famous citadel. I hadn’t heard about the city and citadel before I visited here, so discovering such a great area excited me so much. We decided to climb the citadel, but there were 408 steps and we thought that it can tire us out. And we took the elevator to climb the citadel. The view from the elevator was also great. After we climbed, we watched the perfect landscape of the city, its old and traditional buildings, streets, river and green areas.

View from fortress

The city’s name comes from the Celtic word “Divo-Nanto”, meaning “Sacred Valley”. The name of Dinant was first recorded about 800 BC. But in this period the citadel hadn’t came into being. The first fortress was built toward 1040 and the first bridge round about 1080. The town was destroyed most of times, but it has survived until the present day. The town was occupied by Louis XIV from 1675 to 1698, when the castle was given a major facelift under the supervision of the French military engineer “Vauban”. From 1818 to 1821, the castle was once again destroyed and then rebuilt by the Dutch to produce the Citadel we know today.

In the castle there is a central courtyard where you can see cannonballs and a cafe. We hadn’t more time to visit the castle but if we hadn’t done it, we couldn’t learn about more places to see. In the corridors of the time,there were three rooms recalling milestones in the history of the Dinant Citadel. There were dungeons where you can visit the prisoners’cell, the guardroom and the torture room.

The guard room

Torture room

After visiting that part, we went to the splendid view point. This strategic position, 100 m above the Meuse river, is the fortress look-out point. The view of the city was great.

Meuse river

Then we continued to the tour in castle and we saw some places where you can see three scenes from life as it used to be in 1820s – a forge, kitchens and a bakery from 1820s-.

Castle

Castle kitchen

Castle bakery

The most interesting part of the castle was collapsed shelter cave. You lose your balance and try to stay on course. We had a dizziness while we were passing from this part. It was so interesting. After this nice tour in citadel, we discovered the city. You feel like you are in a mystic place and streets and houses give you that feelings. There were lots of people on streets and you really feel that you are in a sacred town far far away.

Travel back in time and explore the fortress.

Address: 9 kms from the E411 Brussel-Luxembourg motorway - Exit No 20

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Google earth

Virtual visits to World Heritage Sites

By zerrinhosgor - 12/03/2009 02:39:00 PM

Cultural and natural sites listed in World Heritage will be accessible to people around the world in internet now. I read about this new alliance today. Unesco and Google make an alliance to provide virtual visits to these sites. Internet users can visit 19 sites via "Google Street View" interface. All the other sites on the list will be shown on the "Google Earth" and "Google Maps" interfaces. Street view provides panoramic views taken by cameras, so these views can increase awareness about these sites.

This project starts with a short list including Old town of Caceres, Historic city of Toledo, Banks of Seine, Archeological Areas of pompei, Historic centre of Siena, Historic centre of San Gimignano, Historic centre of Prague and some others located in Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic, United Kingdom. The focus is on harder-to-access sites. They can be appreciated by millions of people who might never have the opportunity to visit them. These sites are located in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Netherlands.

This project can be useful for people who have not any opportunity to visit some sites. For example, Brazil, Canada or Australia are inaccessible for me, so I can have a chance to visit sites located in these countries via this project. But I think, if someone has a change and opportunity to visit and see these sites in real world, it is better. Because it is meaningful, when you go and live real life in these sites and experience the natural and cultural heritage.

I searched lots of Unesco sites in internet before, to make a research about my study, you can learn lots of things about these sites but you can not interiorise the importance or unique character of these sites. I understood that when I made a visit to some of these sites (Toledo, Brugge, etc.). It was different than I read. Every source was telling about mediaval character and old narrow streets of Toledo. I learned about it from documents, but I thought that there is a place like a museum conserved by Unesco. When I went there and while I was strolling and walking in the city, I felt these mediaval city. I lived and experienced the city and it gives you the unique character of them. This is my opinion, but as I said before this project provides an alternative on the other hand.

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Belgium

GHENT, BELGIUM - City on the river mouth with its lights

By zerrinhosgor - 12/02/2009 09:13:00 AM

Ghent is a historical city with its art, culture and events. The city's name means 'river mouth' or confluence. Until the 13th century Ghent was the biggest city in Europe after Paris; it was bigger than London, Cologne or Moscow. During my short trip to Ghent, I stayed in one of my friends’ place and I had a chance to learn about city, its historical and cultural features, transportation policies and life styles from her. As my friend told me, beside its historical character, Ghent presents a contemporary city view. Ghent has managed to preserve its mediaval power, while keeping up with time. It is a university city and presence of young people and students has turned Ghent into an important cultural centre. Ghent established a nice blend between comfort of living and history – it is not a museum city. It is an alive city.

When I was there,there were lots of restoration and construction works to make the city and cultural life better. Honestly, I must confess that I felt like I was in Istanbul. These initiatives and vitality made me feel like that. Large public squares, ancient buildings, churches, towers and other historical buildings were remarkable nodes in the city.

Especially true mediaval castle in the middle of the city impressed me so much. While we were walking in the city, it appeared in front of us and it was amazing in the evening with its lights. I visited the city at night and it was more desirable for me to feel the real life when tourists left and inhabitants stayed. City was also great with its lights and rivers in the evening.

When you walk in each street, you feel different ambience because every street of the city reflects different character of it. Some streets are narrow which give you a feeling like you are in a historical city, while others are wide and present a modern city view. Second interesting point was the old fish market at St. Veerleplein. There was a restoration works in there to make a new fish market having a walking area with view on to the rivers and hosting an event hall. I think it will be a nice attraction point with its original charm and character.

In Ghent, people try to use bicycles and public transportation for their daily lifes. There are good infrastructure opportunities such as underpasses under bridge to provide continuous cycling routes and the city has an extensive public transport network serving the city centre and surrounding area. These were results of good transportation policies. Ghent can be easily reached by car and national trains from other cities in Belgium.

At the same time,these transport opportunities by car leads to excessive private vehicle usage in the city. In order to counter the traffic problems, a number of plans had been established. With the bicyle plan (1993), cycling infrastucture and bicycle culture were created. A lot of infrastructure was, and is still, constructed along city roads or along the abundant waterways in the city (including some underpasses under bridges). With the mobility plans for the inner city (1997), it was injected a new dynamism into the historical centre of Ghent. Creating large pedestrian area, traffic flow measures, constraints for car usage in city center, traffic calming, and re-designing the streets and squares to make the city more attractive to citizens and visitors were important decisions of that plan. Ghent has one of the largest car-free area in Europe now.

I couldn’t spend more time to discover the city but, I felt its unique character and I look forward to be there again in a short period.

"Ghent is not just a city like any other which will charm you for a moment then let you go without a further thought. No. Like a beautiful woman who is very much aware of her charms, Ghent will seduce you with its passion and fire. You’ll be distraught to leave it and consumed with longing."

Le Guide du Routard

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LandScope: Travel Diary of An Explorer

“Divo-Nanto” – Sacred Valley, DINANT, NAMUR

Virtual visits to World Heritage Sites

GHENT, BELGIUM - City on the river mouth with its lights

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