Namur

The more unusual the structure, the more brilliant the plan, especially if it involves explosives.

And that's precisely what we found in Namur in Belgium.

At first glance, this area doesn't look like it's home to any abnormal buildings.

But just beyond these residential streets stands a ginormous 170-meter high telecoms tower.

Controlling the direction a building will collapse in when it's being demolished is never an easy task, especially when your weapon of choice is dynamite.

In the demolition business, the bigger the structure, the greater the radius of destruction.

And they don't come much bigger than this job in Namur, Belgium.

This giant 170-meter-tall telecoms tower used to transmit electromagnetic signals around Europe, but that technology is outdated, and that meant this monster was out of a job.

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Between Namur and Liege by William Wordsworth.

Read for LibriVox.org. What lovelier home could gentle Fancy choose? Is this the stream whose city's heights and plains, War's favorite playground, are with crimson stains Familiar, as the morn with pearly dews: The morn, that now along the silver Meuse, Spreading her peaceful ensigns, calls the swains To tend their silent boats and ringing wains, Or strip the bough whose mellow fruit bestrews The ripening corn beneath it As mine eyes turn from the fortified And threatening hill, how sweet the prospect Of yon watery glade, with its grey rocks Clustering in pensive shade, that, shaped Like old monastic turrets, rise From the smooth meadow ground, serene and still! End of poem.

This recording is in the public domain.

France, already fainting from exhaustion, was in no condition to repair such a loss.

Sieges such as those of Mons and Namur were operations too costly for her means.

The business of her army now was not to conquer, but to subsist.

The army of William was reduced to straits not less painful.

But Villeroy was weak, rash, haughty, irritable.

Such a negotiator was far more likely to embroil matters than to bring them to an amicable settlement.

Boufflers was a man of sense and temper, and fortunately he had, during the few days which he had passed at Huy after the fall of Namur, been under the care of Portland, by whom he had been treated with the greatest courtesy and kindness.

A friendship had sprung up between the prisoner and his keeper.

This recording is in the public domain.

Between Namur and Liege, by William Wordsworth.

Read for LibriVox.org. What lovelier home could gentle Fancy choose? Is this the stream whose city's heights and plains, War's favorite playground, are with crimson stains Familiar, as the morn with pearly dews: The morn, that now along the silver Meuse, Spreading her peaceful ensigns, calls the swains To tend their silent boats and ringing wains, Or strip the bough whose mellow fruit bestrews The ripening corn beneath it? As mine eyes Turn from the fortified and threatening hill, How sweet the prospect of yon watery glade, With its gray rocks clustering in pensive shade, That, shaped like old monastic turrets, rise From the smooth meadow-ground, serene and still! End of poem.

This recording is in the public domain.

Yeah, like until...

I think Namur was 98 and they sent a half ass team.

So maybe 98, they went back, you know, like, yeah, it was a,

I think they went with, uh, I think when, uh, Blackfoot came in the picture.

So half the team has got this.

This is, like, the Namur logo.

There's a shell.

Oh, wow.

In 1690, displays were given again on the Thames and in Covent Garden on the occasion of the King's return from Ireland.

The taking of Namur, 1695, was celebrated by a display in St. James's Square, and on the same site two years later, the celebrations for the Peace of Ryswick.

This latter is depicted on a fine engraving given the following list of fireworks used on the occasion: 1,000 skyrockets from four to six pounds weight, 200 shell, 2,400 pumps with stars, Roman candles, 1,000 cones, 7,000 reports, 15,000 swarms, 400 light balls, 23 rocket chests, each containing 60 rockets from one to four pounders.

John Evelyn, in his diary, says, "The evening concluded with illuminations and fireworks of great expense." The display cost £12,000.