Pomp place marché aux légumes - Namur

In the center of the square planted with lime trees stands an elegant limestone monument in Louis XVI style.

The pump was possibly built in 1778 or 1791 by François-Joseph Denis. On a high, finely profiled plinth stands a slender square pillar with a Tuscan capital, decorated with panels and palmettes and reinforced at the base by large scrolls. Above that a wide shelf with a basket of fruit and vegetables on it.

Together with the Angel Pump, these two survivors testify to a much denser network of public pumps from a time, not so long ago, when to obtain water it was not enough to turn on a tap.

Indeed, the search and domestication of water constitute one of humanity's great technological adventures. Nowadays, water in the city has become discreet. There was a time when she was much more present. To meet their needs, the population of Namur in the Middle Ages had three main sources of food: rivers , with the risks this entailed because they were already polluted, water reservoirs and wells. Curiously, fountains were rare (only one mentioned in the 15th century, "at Saint-Aubain"), in contrast to the numerous public or private wells , which over time were increasingly equipped with pumps .

In the 18th century there were about thirty of which the emerging structures were probably rudimentary and probably devoid of any aesthetic character. In the second half of the century, the construction of monumental pumps at the initiative of the government was part of a real desire to beautify the city.

Willem Vandenameele