. According to a legend, a magic horse jumped from the top of this rock to the left bank of the river, carrying the
Four Sons of Aymon fleeing
Charlemagne. The modern Ardennes region covers a greatly diminished area from the forest recorded in Roman times. A song about Charlemagne, the
Old French 12th-century
chanson de geste Quatre Fils Aymon, mentions many of Wallonia's rivers, villages and other places. In
Dinant the rock named
Bayard takes its name from
Bayard, the magic bay horse which, according to legend, jumped from the top of the rock to the other bank of the Meuse. On their
pillaging raids in the years 881 and 882, the
Vikings used the old Roman roads in the Ardennes, attacking the abbeys of Malmedy and Stavelot and destroying
Prüm Abbey in the
Eifel. The strategic position of the Ardennes has made it a battleground for European powers for many centuries. Much of the Ardennes formed part of the Duchy (since 1815, the Grand Duchy) of Luxembourg, a member state of the Holy Roman Empire, which changed hands numerous times between the powerful dynasties of Europe. In 1793 revolutionary France annexed the entire area, together with all other territories west of the
Rhine river. In 1815, the
Congress of Vienna, which dealt with the political aftermath of the
Napoleonic Wars, restored the previous geographical situation, with most of the Ardennes becoming part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After the
revolution of 1830, which resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium, the political future of the Ardennes became a matter of much dispute between Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, as well as involving the contemporary
great powers of
France,
Prussia, and
Great Britain. As a result, in 1839, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ceded the westernmost 63% of its territory (being also the main part of the Ardennes) to the new
Kingdom of Belgium, which is now its
Luxembourg Province. In the 20th century, leading military strategists generally considered the Ardennes to be unsuitable for large-scale military operations, due to its difficult terrain and narrow communication lines. However, in
World War I as well as
World War II, Germany successfully gambled on making a rapid passage through the Ardennes to attack a relatively lightly defended part of France. The Ardennes became the site of three major battles during the world wars: the
Battle of the Ardennes (August 1914) in World War I, the
Battle of France (1940), and the
Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945) in World War II. Many of the towns of the region suffered severe damage during the two world wars and its various battles. Allied generals in
World War II believed that the region was impenetrable to massed vehicular traffic and especially armoured tanks, so the area was effectively "all but undefended" during the war. The German Army twice used this region to invade northern France and southern Belgium, via Luxembourg in the
Battle of France and the later
Battle of the Bulge. In 1939 and 1940,
Nazi Germany's military strategists selected the forest as the primary route of their
mechanised forces in the
Invasion of France. The forest's great size could conceal the
armoured divisions, and because the French did not suspect that the Germans would make such a risky move, they either did not consider a breakthrough there, or imagined that it would take at least 15 days for an army to pass through the forest. German forces, primarily under the command of
Erich von Manstein, carried out the plan in two days, and managed to slip numerous divisions past the
Maginot Line to attack France from the north, and rout the French forces. In May 1940 the German army crossed the
Meuse, despite the resistance of the
French Army. Under the command of
General Heinz Guderian, the German armoured divisions crossed the river at Dinant and at
Sedan, France. This was a crucial step in the push towards Paris, and
France fell on 25 June 1940. At the other end of the war, the Ardennes area came to prominence again during the
Battle of the Bulge. The German Army, which had been forced to retreat for some time, launched a surprise attack in December 1944 in an attempt to recapture
Antwerp and to drive a wedge between the advancing British and American forces in northern France. After a fierce battle the
Allied forces blocked the German advance on the river Meuse at Dinant. In the postwar period, the Ardennes has become a weekend retreat that is popular among Belgians as well as people from neighbouring countries. The tourist industry offers an extensive and varied range of activities and types of accommodation. ==See also==