Floods
The Meuse brought Dinant prosperity, but it also often threatened the town. For centuries, its floods regularly invaded the streets and sometimes even the collegiate church.
This column has preserved the memory of them. Several marks indicate the level reached during particularly disastrous floods. Some bear only a date: 1573, 1595 or 1880. Others take the form of Latin inscriptions.
One recalls the flood of 1740: ‘On the eve of the feast of the Apostle Thomas, the waters rose to this point.’ Another inscription, twenty-two centimetres lower, likewise indicates how high the water rose.
Look at the height of these marks. They give a very concrete idea of the violence of past floods. During the major floods of 1993, 1995 and 2021, although regarded as historic, the water did not even enter the collegiate church.
The town gradually learned to protect itself. The canalisation of the Meuse and regulation of its flow have greatly reduced the risk, but the marks carved into the stone remain witnesses to the river’s former fury.