Fort van Sint-Filips

En un regard

Le château en bref

Fort Sint-Filips occupies a bend of the Scheldt on the right bank, about four kilometres north of Antwerp city centre. A first square redoubt with four bastions, surrounded by a moat, was built there in 1584 by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, at the same time as Fort Sint-Marie on the left bank. Between the two works, Farnese laid a pontoon bridge that closed the river and led to Antwerp's surrender in 1585. The fort was dismantled in 1789 and replaced between 1870 and 1881 by Fort Filip, a brick fort of the fortified belt designed by Henri Alexis Brialmont, three of whose turrets each housed heavy guns aimed at the Scheldt. In 1914, Belgian troops destroyed the turrets as they withdrew. The fort closed in 1970. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the site was used as a dump for industrial and petroleum waste from the port. Its remediation, one of the largest projects of its kind in the Port of Antwerp, forms part of the Sigma Plan for flood protection. The 19th-century structures are no longer accessible, and their outlines have been reproduced at ground level.