town of Belgium, province of Namur, and capital of a cognominal arrondissement, on the Meuse, 12 miles S. of Namur. It occupies the declivity of a rocky hill, the summit of which is crowned by a castle; and has a Gothic cathedral richly decorated in the interior, two hospitals, and a Latin school; besides salt refineries, tanneries, breweries; and oil, flour, hemp, and paper mills, and mills for cutting and polishing marble. Pop. (1851) 6867. Dinant is a place of great antiquity, for we find that a church was consecrated here in 558, and a second in 604. It did not, however, rise to any great importance till the eleventh century. In the twelfth century it was fortified, and was considered a place of great strength. In 1466 Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, took and destroyed the town and its fortifications; but, three years later, his successor, Charles, allowed it to be rebuilt. It was taken and pillaged by the French in 1554, and again in 1675. By the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 it was restored to the Bishop of Liège, but was again taken by the French in 1794, and became the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Sambre-et-Meuse.