Cemetery and monument to the executed at Tamines

The Tamines Cemetery of the Shots is erected there, a few meters from where, on the banks of the Sambre, 364 civilians were shot on August 22, 1914. Two mass graves were dug in a hurry. Subsequently, the site was developed in memory of these victims. This cemetery is unique in Wallonia because it is the cemetery of a day, of a historical event, that of August 22, 1914. It is also exceptional because it is representatives of all social classes of the local population and their professions who lie there.The placement of steles in the walls of the church adds to the gravity of the facts and their enhancement. It contributes to the elevation of these men, young and old, who fell that day to the rank of victims or even martyrs for a cause that goes beyond the local framework: the Fatherland. It also contributes to placing the municipality on a national level. If other localities along the banks of the Meuse or the Sambre experienced similar events, the bodies were buried in the municipal cemeteries next to other deceased.After the visit of King Albert on 13 March 1919, it was decided in September 1919 to build a Monument to the Executed. The Brussels sculptor Louis Mascrée built it and it was inaugurated on Place des Martyrs on 22 August 1926, in the presence of Prince Leopold. In May 1940, the Germans could not stand its presence and dynamited it. It was rebuilt and inaugurated on 12 August 1951. The sculptor was Mr Brognon. It is the largest of the monuments in Sambreville. Three superimposed bases, forming steps on the four sides, topped with a cubic block on which a statue of a woman raises her arms to the sky, symbolize Liberty reborn from the dead lying at her feet. Against a backdrop of trees.Extract from the publication "Mémoire des monuments de Sambreville" (2008) on sale at the Tamines Tourist Office.