Dendermonde Battery 2

En un regard

Le château en bref

Battery 2 of Dendermonde, located at Winningstraat 50 in Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde, is one of the two surviving outer works of the town's fortified ring. After the fortress of Antwerp became a “national redoubt” in 1859, Dendermonde lost some of its strategic importance; from 1876, however, three forward batteries were built some two kilometres from the enceinte, officially to replace a vanished lunette but in reality to protect the town against bombardment. Battery 1 has disappeared, while batteries 2 and 3 survive. The work comprises a T-shaped brick main building, covered with earth and built on an island in the moat, with its intersecting corridors, artillery stores and ammunition magazines, as well as a semicircular earthen rampart, a pilastered gateway, a guardhouse and the sergeant's house. The keystone of the gateway bears the date “L 1880”, whereas the inventory also records 1886. Listed as a monument in 2003, the battery is now a private site used for residential purposes.