The city of Antwerp part 5: the outward expansion of the defences

For a long time the city defences of Antwerp were composed of the so-called Spaanse Omwalling (Spanish Walls) from 1542 with the Citadel of 1567 in the south. The citadel was built right outside the city walls where before the village of Kiel had stood. Apart from these city defences fortresses were built to defend the Scheldt river. These "forts" were Vlaams Hoofd (1576) opposite the city, Fort Sint Marie (1584), Fort Isabella (1605), Fort Lillo (1582) and Fort Liefkenshoek (1584). The latter two riverside fortresses were remodelled in 1782 and 1799 respectively. As part of that Napoleonic upgrade campaign a new fortress was built in 1812 north of the city near the village of Oosterweel: Fort Ferdinand. In 1862 this fort would be replaced by a much bigger fortress, the so-called Noordkasteel (literally: North Castle). This fortress was the crown of the new defensive system devised by Capt. Alexis Henri Brialmont (1812-1903).

The city of Antwerp after 1812 with the Fort Ferdinand north of the city. The fortress is a large rectangular structure constructed with earth banks and brick walls within an outer moat.

Until the autonomy of Belgium from the United Netherlands in 1830 the city of Antwerp was defended by the Spanish Walls and the riverside fortresses. The whole of the country was defended by some 20 fortified cities. After the rise of Napoleon III in 1851 it became apparent that the young Belgian state had an outdated army and defensive structure. It was decided that the important port city of Antwerp should be better defended by the erection of 7 small fortresses built in earth and stone and topped with wooden palisades. At the time the small fortresses were built hastily a few hundred yards around the existing defences, the ideas about fortifications were changing.

The French fortresses had a bastioned layout and a basic square or rectangular shape. German fortresses were considerably more reliable. So in 1846 Brialmont was sent to Germany to study fortress building. These German fortresses had a polygonal shape with caponiers and internal defensive rings. Brialmont formulated a plan for the Fortified Positions of Liège and Antwerp. The Fortifications Act of 1859 made his vision possible and work commenced in Antwerp in 1860. Brialmont had proposed a polygonal girdle to be built at 2 kilometres from the old Spanish Walls, thus encompassing the villages of Borgerhout and Berchem. He had based this design on the ideas of Marquis Montalembert, a French military engineer. This new defensive wall increased the surface area of the city six fold.

The city of Antwerp around 1900 has now completely filled in the space within the Brialmont-Walls. The harbour had been expanded northwards with the Kattendijkdok (D1), Houtdok (D2), Kempisch Dok (D3), Asiadok (D4) and Sasdok (D5) stretching out from the older Bonapartedok (D6) and Willemsdok (D7) that were both constructed between 1811 and 1813 to replace the 16th-century Noordervliet and Middelvliet. Damme (D) has been developed as a result of its close proximity to the harbour docks with housing and industry. Borgerhout (B) has been completely developed intra muros. On the edge of the old city the new Central Station (S), Zoo (Z) and City Park (P) form a high status cluster at the heart of the enlarged city. Berghem (b) has been completely urbanised in the typical Paris-inspired star-like middle and upper-class neighbourhoods with a park where once the gallows (G) stood on the edge of the city freedom. The Citadel was demolished and replaced by docks and a new neighbourhood with cultural and public buildings to form 't Zuid (tZ). The former city moat was filled in and replaced by a boulevard (shown in green) lined with representative buildings.

Outside this new defensive wall with lunettes and a moat with glacis 8 outlying fortresses were built. These were positioned 2.8 - 4.5 kilometres away from the new defensive walls at regular intervals of 2 kilometres. These new fortresses curved around the city from the Scheldt at Hoboken op to Wijnegem in the northeast. To the north no fortresses were built as these polders could be easily inundated. Building work on these fortifications took a mere 5 years and was completed by 1866. The existing fortresses on the left bank of the Scheldt in the Waasland were remodelled and improved. To complete the girdle of fortresses two new fortresses were built on the left bank between 1870 and 1880: Fort Eepoel and Fort van Zwijndrecht. Also an extra fortress was added north of the Kempische Vaart (Campine Shipping Canal): Fort van Merksem (1879).

Each fortress had a similar layout with a 40 to 50 metre wide moat surrounding the defensive structure. Beyond these moats, that were aimed at making a direct surge on the fortress impossible, a sloping glacis was created. The structure within the moat consisted of the fortress built in brick and concrete and covered by high earth banks and a separate reduit built in brick and again covered in earth that was connected to the fortress by a bridge and placed within the moat. The reduit was the final defence from where the fortress could be defended even if the enemy had gained access to the rest of the fortress.

The Fortified Position of Antwerp (Stelling van Antwerpen) by Brialmont with an inner ring that ran from the Noordkasteel (N) to the Kielstelling near the relocated village of Kiel (nK). Three lunets (L1-3) stood before this inner wall. Two of the old, small forts in Berghem (f1) and Deurne (f2) are still in place. The outer ring of polygonal fortresses starts at Fort Merksem (fM) and continues across the Kempische Vaart (V) to the ring of fortresses (F1-8) and then across the river via Fort Eepoel (fE) and Fort Zwijndrecht (fZ) to Fort Sint Marie (fS). The Brialmont fortresses 1 to 8 are often named after the nearby villages: Oosterweel (O), Wijnegem, Schoten (S), Merksem (M), Deurne (D), Eksterlaar (E), Groenenhoek (G), Borsbeek (B), Mortsel (Mr), Luythagen (L), Wilrijk (W), Hoboken (H),Kruibeke (K) and Zwijndrecht (Z).

After WW2 the Brialmont-walls would be replaced by the Motorway R1 that still run through the massively expanded city of Antwerp that now incorporates most of the former villages around it.