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Sambre

River in France and Belgium

Summary

River in France and Belgium

Field	Value
name	Sambre
image	Namur JPG02.jpg
image_caption	The Sambre in the centre of Namur
map	Sambre.png
source1_location	Picardy
mouth_location	Meuse at Namur
mouth_coordinates
progression
subdivision_type1	Countries
subdivision_name1	Belgium and France
length	193 km
source1_elevation	199 m
basin_size	2740 km2

The Sambre () is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur.

The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Aisne department. It passes through the Franco-Belgian coal basin, formerly an important industrial district. The navigable course begins in Landrecies at the junction with the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise, which links with the central French waterway network (or did, until navigation was interrupted in 2006 following structural failures). It runs 54 km and 9 locks 38.50 m long and 5.20 m wide down to the Belgian border at Jeumont. From the border the river is canalised in two distinct sections over a distance of 88 km with 17 locks. The Haute-Sambre is 39 km long and includes 10 locks of the same dimensions as in France, down to the industrial town of Charleroi. The rest of the Belgian Sambre was upgraded to European Class IV dimensions (1350-tonne barges) in the immediate post-World War II period. It lies at the western end of the sillon industriel, which is still Wallonia's industrial backbone, despite the cessation of all the coal-mining and a decline in the steel industry. The river flows into the Meuse at Namur, Belgium.

The navigable waterway is managed in France by Voies Navigables de France and in Belgium by the Service Public Wallon - Direction générale opérationnelle de la Mobilité et des Voies hydrauliques (Operational Directorate of Mobility and Inland Waterways)

Course

The Sambre flows through the following departments of France, provinces of Belgium and towns:

Aisne (F): Barzy-en-Thiérache
Nord (F): Landrecies, Aulnoye-Aymeries, Hautmont, Maubeuge
Hainaut (B): Thuin, Montigny-le-Tilleul, Charleroi
Namur (B): Floreffe, Namur

File:AulneRv1bJPG.jpg|The Sambre at Aulne Abbey in Belgium File:Flawinne Riv1a.jpg|The Sambre at Flawinne (Namur) File:Ham-sur-Sambre Vi1a JPG.jpg|The Sambre at Ham-sur-Sambre File:Moustier-sur-Sambre U1a.jpg|The Sambre at Moustier-sur-Sambre File:Vami péniche on the Sambre river in Namur (DSCF5450).jpg|A barge on the Sambre in Namur File:La Sambre in Namur viewed from Quai de l'Abbaye (DSCF5606).jpg|The Sambre in Namur File:Charleroi - Sambre - péniche "Atlantic" - 02.jpg|alt=|The canalised Sambre running through the centre of Charleroi

Main tributaries

Helpe Mineure
Helpe Majeure
Eau d’Heure (Eau d'Heure lakes)
Hantes
Thure
Biesmelle
Thyria
Eau d’Yves
Piéton, northern tributary, confluence in Charleroi.
Hanzinne, confluence in Châtelet
Biesmes d’Aiseau
Orneau
Ligne
Eau d’Eppe
Ruisseau de Fosses
Solre

Events

On 24 February 1912, Regina Magritte, the mother of the famous surrealist painter Réné Magritte, drowned herself in this river at Châtelet.

Battles

The 19th-century theory that the Sambre was the location of Julius Caesar's battle against a Belgic confederation (57 BC), was discarded a long time ago, but is still repeated.

Three important battles were fought in Fleurus, a suburb of Charleroi on the north bank of the Sambre: the Thirty Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1622), the Nine Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1690), and the crucial 26 June 1794 Battle of Fleurus (1794), the most significant battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries during the French Revolutionary Wars. The last was fought on both banks of the river, culminating a campaign that had involved multiple crossings and re-crossings of the river.

Heavy fighting occurred along the river during World War I, especially at the siege of Namur in 1914 (Battle of Charleroi) and in the last month of the war Battle of the Sambre (1918).

References

Edwards-May, David. (2010). "Inland Waterways of France". Imray.
Edwards-May, David. (2014). "European Waterways Map and Concise Directory". Transmanche.
{{sandre
"Contrats de rivière en Wallonie - Sambre". Environnement.wallonie.be.
"Le Ruisseau "le Piéton" - Piéton, Village du Hainaut". Pieton.eu.
Harris, James C.. (2007-08-01). "The Murderer Threatened (L'assassin Menacé)". Archives of General Psychiatry.
Pierre Turquin ("La Bataille de la Selle (du Sabis) en l' An 57 avant J.-C." in Les Études Classiques 23/2 (1955), 113-156) has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the battle was fought at the [[Selle (Somme tributary). River Selle]], west of modern [[Saulzoir]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

sambre-basin rivers-of-belgium rivers-of-france international-rivers-of-europe rivers-of-aisne rivers-of-nord-(french-department) rivers-of-wallonia rivers-of-hauts-de-france rivers-of-namur-province rivers-of-hainaut-province geography-of-namur

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