75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Mons

August 31 – September 1, 2019

On September 2, 1944 the Allied troops began the liberation of Belgium from German occupation. The first Belgian city to be declared free by the US Army was Mons. 

It was was the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

Centenary Commemoration of The Great War

On 23 August 1914, the British met the Germans in Mons, and on 11 November 1918, with substantial involvement of the Canadians, they liberated the city after 50 months of occupation.

The Battle of Mons was the first major battle of World War One. 

Fought on the last day of World War I, in which Canadian forces captured the Belgian town of Mons, liberating an area that had been under German occupation since 1914.

Mons was a regional centre for coal mining, and its resources had been used throughout the war to fuel Germany’s war effort.

The Battle of Mons has attained an almost mythic status. Mons gained a myth, a miraculous tale that the Angels of Mons—angelic warriors, had saved the British Army by halting the German troops.
Sound and light show played out on the facade of the Hôtel de Ville of Mons by DIRTYMONITOR using projection-mapping technology (26 October-11 November 2018, 7 pm and 9 pm, for 25 minutes in FR/EN). It traced the history of Canadian expeditionary troops in Europe, up to the liberation of Mons, narrated through the lens of the sacrificed life of the soldier George Price.

As the bells toll at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.

We joined The Black Watch parade at 11 am and shivering cold in rainy Mons, back to the Grand Place in the evening for the commemorative ceremony attended by Prince Laurent.

One hundred years on, with conflict still raging in the world, remembrance of earlier wartime human sacrifice continues to resonate.

Obelisk 1944

Google Doodle: Mundaneum

August 23, 2015

Mundaneum co-founder Paul Otlet's 147th Birthday

Before Google, pioneers like Paul Otlet imagined a world where information was free and accessible. Created by Googler Leon Hong, Today’s Doodle pays tribute to Paul’s pioneering work on the Mundaneum. The collection of knowledge stored in the Mundaneum’s drawers are the foundational work for everything that happens at Google. 

Dimanche Gratuit: Les Anciens Abattoirs

The first sunday of April 2015. We took the advantage of the free entrance to the exhibitions and went to the old slaughterhouse which now hosts temporary events for contemporary arts.  

Mons Superstars  

(Until April 12, 2015)

A land of inventors and innovations. Featuring great mean and women from the town of Mons, all of whom have helped transform this town and its surrounding region.

This exhibition offers us an interactive experience, combining knowledge and fun discoveries. We were given a mini tablet and headphones to explore the story. There’s a star sign with name and icon which we needed to scan from the floor to provide us informations in text and video.

Got my tablet freeze in the middle of the tour so had to exchange it. And his battery was dying before we’re finished, instead of getting a new one, he was given a powerbank to charge it on the go, cool!

Do you know.. that a Heliometer, an optical instrument used for measuring the sun’s diameter was designed by the Mons-born astronomer?

Or how Nicolas Hardenpont develop the juicy pear as we know it today.

There’s so many examples of amazing boldness, optimism and preverance.

This is a treasure hunt and voyage of discovery, a quest for fascinating facts and stories. 

Hollywood at the Foot of the Slag Heap 

(Until May 17, 2015)  

Sixty years before the exhibition “Van Gogh in the Borinage”, Vincente Minnelli and Kirk Douglas filmed “Lust for Life” in Petit-Wasmes, Hornu and Saint-Ghislain, in the places that had been the painter’s haunts 75 years earlier.

Relive the excitement of the ten-day shoot that brought Hollywood to the foot of the slag heap.

Mons Memorial Museum

 

A former waterworks in Mons has been transformed into a new museum dedicated to remember the wartime occupations. The story, together with those who fought here, is told at the Mons Memorial Museum, an elegantly converted industrial building which once pumped the town's water supply. 

I have been following the progress when the machine à eau turned into this museum. It has been planned that it will be open on Easter holiday but few weeks earlier I thought it won't be ready on time because seemed had no sign of preparations. 

Et voila.. on April 5, 2015 during the “weekend of metamorphosis”, the museum opens its doors for free to help us understand the causes and effects of conflict.

When we got to the Esplanade Dolez, just across the museum, a woman in colorful costume approached and politely asked if we wanted to get in to the museum. We were kinda hesitant yet intrigued when she offered to sing us a song from the war era. So we put our ears closer to the pipe resembling a listening device and she started whispering and singing a beautiful and heartwarming lullaby. 

Getting in to the museum was easy, no queue. 

Glass and steel lightens the old red brick, while white cubes help to create what the architects call “a stepping stone to the past”. This new museum not only talk about it with its contemporary architecture, but just as much by design. The exhibits begin with forgotten struggles from the Middle Ages. What an experience to be guided in the tragic events of the two World Wars through hundreds of objects with history and multimedia.

The exhibits, selected from the 5000 of military history collections of the town of Mons, pose a fundamental reflection on the relationship between military and civilian population. The individual stories from letters, notebooks, interviews and artefacts were donated by local people as well as descendants of veterans.

As we saw last summer with the royal visit of William and Kate, Mons is becoming a destination of choice for memorial tourism. 

A space dedicated to reflection, investigation and interaction, a museum… More than just an exhibition venue, this new museum is determined to be a place where people from all generations will be able to come and meet right in the heart of a Memorial Region marked by the two successive world wars that turned the 20th century upside down. This museum invites visitors of all ages to question the multiple, complex realities of the phenomena of war. A huge permanent exhibition introduces members of the public to the unique history of the town. Through the fates of the men and women who witnessed events, visitors are immersed in the day-to-day lives of soldiers and civilians in times of war.

Expect to spend at least an hour or two for a visit.

Boulevard Dolez

Tuesday - Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm

9/6 EUR

www.monsmemorialmuseum.mons.be

SILEX'S

Recognized by UNESCO in 2000, the archaeological site of Spiennes is one of the oldest and largest in Europe flint mining centers. Dotted with thousands of mine shafts, the site covers 100 hectares, about 6 km from Mons.

We visited during the Discovery Weekend on April 4, 2015. There was a free shuttle bus from the Memorial Museum but we thought going with own car would make a better idea.

But it’s not.

We got lost!

I was looking for a striking new building surrounded by a meadow but couldn’t find it. Even when we put the coordinate on the gps, still didn’t work. There were only few signs on the road. When finally met someone, he told us that we still needed to walk about 12 minutes after parked our car down the road. 

It was so cold and windy. Walking through a muddy path. And climbing stairs. But the view was okay.

When we got to the SILEX’S building, saw the shuttle bus parked only few meters away from the main gate. Hahaha!

In this interpretation center of Neolithic flint mines, we invited to explore the life of Neolithic man by learning how to create fire, make authentic flint tools and earthenware pots.

The mines at Spiennes are one of those little gems that we should strive to safeguard because of the exceptional part they have played in our history. About six thousand years ago, prehistoric man explored the ground underneath the surface to mine flint. The Neolithic era, the “new stone age”, marked a change in the way groups of humans lived, seeing new models based on agriculture and livestock breeding. In the Mons region, which was covered in greenery at the time, they had to clear the land for their herds. Digging a few centimetres into the ground, at Spiennes, they came across whole swathes of flint, a particularly resistant rock that they could use to make their tools. Over the course of 2,000 years, they would dig thousands of mineshafts, some of which are still virtually intact today.

*Updated 2 October 2016.
Finally had the chance to descent into this true Neolithic mining. It was amazing! But no photos were allowed. 
For reservation: VisitMons office.    

www.silexs.mons.be

"La mémoire de la Grande Guerre à Mons”

 

An outdoor photo exhibition (chosen from a competition) at the Esplanade Dolez, in front of La Machine à Eau (the upcoming Mons Memorial Museum), “The memory of the Great War in Mons: landscapes, heritage and memories”.

On 23 and 24 August 1914, the region of Mons, and more broadly the Borinage, has been the scene of bloody clashes between British and German soldiers. Landscapes still bear the scars: cemeteries, memorials, monuments.. This past marks not only where we live but also inhabits the minds of everyone, combining history, collective imagination, traditions and forgotten. 

*From June 28, 2014 until the opening of the museum in Spring 2015.

Traces from The Battle

The Battle of Mons was the first major battle of World War I.

There was a story about Angel of Mons which is undoubtedly the most enduring supernatural legend of the First World War. The phenomenon was experienced by British troops retreating in the aftermath of the Battle of Mons on the Western Front in August 1914. Numerous soldiers claimed to have seen visions in the sky of St. George surrounded by angels, horsemen and cavalry.