William I of the Netherlands ordered the construction of a huge earth mound at the site to memorialise the dead at Waterloo. The site was chosen because it was believed to have been where his older son had been wounded in the battle. The design was chosen in 1820 and the work was completed within a few years.
The mound is 41 metres high, with a staircase that allows visitors to reach the top and take in the view of the battlefield. The conical shape was achieved by excavating 290 000 cubic metres of earth from the battlefield itself. The soil was carried to the site by labourers from Liege called boteresses. They wore baskets on their backs called hottes and trudged back and forth moving the earth. It is topped by a colossal 28 tonne cast iron Belgian Lion set on a brick column. The steps allowing relatively easy access to the top were added in the 1860s.
It didn't become a tourist attraction until the middle of the 19th century. Wellington visited a few years after his victory there and proclaimed that his battlefield had been spoiled and no one would understand the battle as the terrain had been changed so much in order to construct the mound.
We stopped off on our way past in March and took a photo from the main road.
5 comments:
Waterloo ! Waterloo ! Waterloo ! Morne plaine
Comme une onde qui bout dans une urne trop pleine,
Dans ton cirque de bois, de coteaux, de vallons,
La pâle mort mêlait les sombres bataillons
…
Victor Hugo
chm: I assume he was not actually a witness? Dramatic evocative stuff nevertheless.
Susan: Victor Hugo was 13yo in 1815! His father was a general who might have had a role in the battle and told his young son about it.
According to waterlooassociation.org.uk, Victor Hugo spent two months in or near Waterloo, before writing about it in “Les Misérables” or that poem!
chm: I have read Les Misérables, but so long ago I can remember very little about it apart from not really liking it as a read.
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