An 18th century castle steeped in history has completely collapsed. He was in Cul-des-Sarts, in the province of Namur. Work was underway on site but it was planned to preserve the facade. What exactly happened?
The castle is now in pieces, Dominique and his colleagues have nothing to do with it according to their statements. “There are techniques now to be able to put everything back together. We’ll see a little difference, but we don’t break things for nothing“, says Dominique, machinist on the site.
Part of the facade that was to be saved has unfortunately fallen. “It was still solid, it was still a good construction. But the machines, it’s still a lot of power, it breaks”, adds Dominique.
In Cul-des-Sarts, everyone knew the history of this castle of the 18th century which notably enabled the hiding of Jewish children during the Second World War. Monique, a resident, shares her anger with us: “We’re not gluing that back. Have you seen the catamaran?”, she says, “It’s a whole story that is collapsing. The few people I meet who worked there, they are sorry to see that everything is being destroyed like that.”
“Apparently they weren’t too knowledgeable regarding what to do. They come with a big machine and they demolish.”, explains another inhabitant of the region.
According to the alderman of town planning, Bernard Gilson, the top of the facade should never have been destroyed. It was written in the demolition file. Today, he does not understand what happened: “I know that the first floor was to be kept as well. Now I don’t know why they are knocking everything down.”
The space freed up by the demolition of the castle should make it possible to create car parks. As for this historical witness, partly destroyed, the entrepreneur is studying the possibility of putting the pieces back together.
