Castillo y Gardines de Freÿr al Mosa (Bélgica)
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The Meuse
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An unknown river, except perhaps for the birthplace of Jean of Arc, Domrémy.
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Neither the sweetness of the Loire, nor the power of the Rhine:
neither prestigious castles like those of Anjou and Touraine, nor the chain of the large Rhenish cathedrals.
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And yet, except for the Danube, no other Europan river offers such a variety.
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Near Nancy, one discovers beautiful residences copying the Renaissance style of the Loire
and Classic style of the Isle de France, but in in a simpler manner;
the Duchy of Lorraine being less prosperous than the Kingdom of France.
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Then, it lounges slowly towards the North on more than 300 kilometers in a bucolic environment :
meadows and bocages while two wooded coasts are closing the valley.
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Almost no human traces except at Verdun where many tombs are remembering the mad pride of men.
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And so, the Meuse arrives at the doors of the Ardennes, where it must clear a passage
through this inhospitable plateau. One finds forts, citadels and medieval ruins,
witnesses to the battles for the border.
No country houses: one fought too much here and the ground is poor.
Nevertheless, an exception to the rule: a place which a Duke built in Charleville.
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Outgoing from the Ardennes, the Meuse enters the once proud Principality of Liege:
from the South of Givet (F) to the North of Venlo (NL).
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A regional architecture: stones in the Middle Ages,
then later bricks surrounded with stones, making up sober buildings
at the borders of the Principality as in Freÿr (Namur) or Hoensbroek (Dutch Limburg),
but richer as one moves to the capital: Hex (Belgian Limburg) or the Episcopal Palace (Liege).
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Will the Meuse continue towards the North and emerge in the Rhine?
No, it is too independent; It takes a straight turn towards the Sea while
bordering the Duchy of Gelder and absorbing a Rhenish touch which is spread
upstream and downstream.
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And again, strongholds, but this time surrounded by water,
sloten as they are called in the language of Vondel: Ammersoyen and Loevenstein;
the latter looks at the water of a branch of the Rhine coming to wet
that of the Meuse and to leave towards the delta while passing between
the Counties of Zeeland and Holland.
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There, a new decor awaits us. A style close to that of Flanders
but emancipated thanks to the richness of the Republic of the Netherlands,
that takes a clear British note when children of the country went up
on the throne of the United Kingdom for two generations.
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Four countries belong to this basin. Indeed, the water from Achen ends up in the Meuse,
just as that of Düren halfway between Achen and Köln, which via the Rur(D)
emerges in the Meuse at Roermond (NL: the mouth of Roer)
by changing spelling at border, just like the Meuse became Maas.
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No 3 stars buildings except for the cupola of Charlemagne in Achen and
the deceased cathedral St Lambert of Liège which was destroyed
during the French Revolution, a worthy cousin of those of Reims, Canterbury or Köln.
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A river which linked people during the Middle Ages on the European dorsal,
Lotharingia, but that the madness of nationalisms drew up against
each other from the time of the Renaissance up to the 20th century.
