The tour du millénaire (
French for ''tower of the millennium'') is a vantage point built in 2001 in
Gedinne
Gedinne (; wa, Djedene) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium.
On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 4,405 inhabitants. The total area is , giving a population density of .
It is situated in the Ardennes eas ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
just meters away from the
French border.
The tower consists of two tripods fitted together (one upright, one upside down) with three different viewing platforms (at 15 m, 30 m and 45 m). The total height of the tower (including the spire) is 60 m. The legs of the tripods are the stems of
Douglas-fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
trees found in the surrounding forest, held together by a steel construction.
It tops the plateau of the
Croix-Scaille, a forest of around 90 square kilometres that was used by the
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...
. The plateau is at 503 m the highest point in the
Ardennes (excluding the
High Fens
The High Fens (german: Hohes Venn; french: Hautes Fagnes; nl, Hoge Venen), which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in Liège Province, in the east of Belgium and adjoining parts of Germany, between the ...
which is sometimes defined as being in the Ardennes) and the fourth highest summit in Belgium.
The tower was dismantled due to woodrot on July 7, 2008, and reopened after restoration on July 5, 2012.
References
External links
Designing architects
*
Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium
Towers in Belgium
Ardennes
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