The Sambre ( French: [sɑ̃bʁ] ) is a river in northern France and in Wallonia , Belgium . It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse , which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur .
7-756: The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache , in the Aisne department . It passes through the Franco-Belgian coal basin, formerly an important industrial district. The navigable course begins in Landrecies at the junction with the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise, which links with the central French waterway network (or did, until navigation was interrupted in 2006 following structural failures). It runs 54 km and 9 locks 38.50m long and 5.20m wide down to
14-706: The Nine Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1690) , and the crucial 26 June 1794 Battle of Fleurus (1794) , the most significant battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries during the French Revolutionary Wars . The last was fought on both banks of the river, culminating a campaign that had involved multiple crossings and re-crossings of the river. Heavy fighting occurred along the river during World War I , especially at
21-600: The Belgian border at Jeumont. From the border the river is canalised in two distinct sections over a distance of 88 km with 17 locks. The Haute-Sambre is 39 km long and includes 10 locks of the same dimensions as in France, down to the industrial town of Charleroi . The rest of the Belgian Sambre was upgraded to European Class IV dimensions (1350-tonne barges) in the immediate post-World War II period. It lies at
28-532: The Germans requisitioned cars and trucks, six bicycles, candles and kerosene. Every day, the town had to supply the Germans with 100 kg of assorted meat, 85 kg of bread, 48 kg of oats, 8 bales of alfalfa; 8 bales of straw, carrots, turnips, a cabbage and 200 kg of coal. A large part of the Nouvion-en-Thiérache forest is requisitioned and cut down to produce coal and rifle butts. On 6 November 1918
35-583: The following departments of France , provinces of Belgium and towns: The 19th-century theory that the Sambre was the location of Julius Caesar 's battle against a Belgic confederation (57 BC), was discarded a long time ago, but is still repeated. Three important battles were fought in Fleurus , a suburb of Charleroi on the north bank of the Sambre: the Thirty Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1622) ,
42-665: The siege of Namur in 1914 ( Battle of Charleroi ) and in the last month of the war Battle of the Sambre (1918) . Le Nouvion-en-Thi%C3%A9rache Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache ( French pronunciation: [lə nuvjɔ̃ ɑ̃ tjeʁaʃ] , literally Le Nouvion in Thiérache ; Picard : Ch' Nouvion-in-Thiérache ) is a commune in the Aisne department , region of Hauts-de-France (formerly Picardy ), northern France . On 27 August 1914, 210 houses in Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache were destroyed. On 3 October 1914
49-692: The western end of the sillon industriel , which is still Wallonia 's industrial backbone, despite the cessation of all the coal-mining and a decline in the steel industry. The river flows into the Meuse at Namur , Belgium. The navigable waterway is managed in France by Voies Navigables de France and in Belgium by the Service Public Wallon - Direction générale opérationnelle de la Mobilité et des Voies hydrauliques (Operational Directorate of Mobility and Inland Waterways) The Sambre flows through
#220779