Antique Print-SIEGE-ANTWERP-BELGIUM-SHIP-EIGHTY YEARS? WAR-Strada-1640

‘A. NAVES A GANDANUVO SUBMISSAE OBVIAS ANTUERPIENSIUM ?’

– Original antique print showing the siege of Antwerp (Belgium) on the 15th of march 1585, by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma.He decided on a blockade, with the damming of shipping, by building the Farnesian bridge in Kallo, at Fort St-Marie.However, to provide the material for the bridge from Ghent along the Scheldt, argued, Antwerp should be avoided.Parma had the ships leave the Scheldt Castle through a breach in the dike and led them across the flooded fields of Melsele, to reach the Scheldt again at Kallo.However, this only worked once, because the Antwerp besieged would closely guard the breach of Burcht.In order to bring a new supply of forty ships with material from Ghent to Kallo, Farnese came up with the ingenious plan to lead the fleet along the Ghent canal to Stekene (to the later Fort St-Jan), cutting an access road to the flooded area , to follow the lowest part there along moors and old watercourses (Mellader), to flow back into the Scheldt through a breach at the Perel Fort. Scene from the Eighty Years’ War.