Brialmont Park Information Board Berchem

A military defence belt consisting of two rings of forts was built around Antwerp between 1859 and 1914. This fortification belt was intended to protect the city from bombardments and to protect it from occupation.

When the First World War began, the Brialmont belt with its 8 forts was the innermost of 3 defence belts around Antwerp.
The associated "Great Wall" was more than just a complex of walls, ramparts and moats. It was also a place where people worked and lived. From the construction workers who built the wall, the soldiers who lived and were stationed there, to the citizens who could enter and leave the city via the gates. During archaeological excavations, various objects were found, including those of military origin, mainly from the period immediately after the World War.

The Brialmont forts and the wall had to make way for the route of the Antwerp Ring and the Antwerp Singel in the 1960s. The rest of the area is now a nature park.

In the Brialmont Park there are several information boards about the past, including the board about the Cardboard forts
"When the German army crossed the Belgian border on 4 August 1914, the entire country relied on the fortification belt around Antwerp for its defence. In vain. According to a desperate soldier, the forts looked like they were made of cardboard, against those monster cannons that Brialmont had never counted on.

However, the Brialmont ramparts, which had been expanded at the beginning of the 20th century with a new forward fortification belt, had made Antwerp the best protected place in the country.

During the siege of Antwerp, Berchem was also briefly bombed by the Germans. On the morning of 9 October, the first German soldiers entered Antwerp via the Berchem Brialmont gates."

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck