Night of history

As it exactly 100 years ago that World War One started, a lot of remembrance ceremonies are taking place this year.

Tonight, in various places in Flanders, the Night of History is taking place. This is to remember what exactly happened in that terrible year 1914.

Dendermonde, the town where I was born and have been living in since then, also became victim of the acts of war. During one month, there was a fierce battle between the Belgian army and the Germans, because the last ones wanted to cross the river Schelde right here. Unfortunately 'the battle for Dendermonde' is not mentioned in a lot of history books.

Our Town Hall looked like this after the fire died out. Nothing much left standing, right? Most of the town looked like this:

Dendermonde became a 'Martyr Town' (together with Dinant, Taminnes, Aarschot and Leuven). On the 5th and th of September nearly the whole of the town was burnt down. Most of its historical buildings, dating back to the Middle Ages were badly affected. I'l post some pictures to show how bad. They were renovated later on and of course today the town pretty much looks like nothing ever happened.

But still...