Lion's Mound

Design and construction

The erection of the Lion's Mound, 1825. Engraving by Jobard, after a Bertrand drawing.[a]

The Lion's Mound was designed by the royal architect Charles Vander Straeten, at the behest of King William I of the Netherlands, who wished to commemorate the location on the battlefield of Waterloo where a musket ball hit the shoulder of his elder son, King William II of the Netherlands (then Prince of Orange), and knocked him from his horse during the battle, on 18 June 1815.[1] It is also a memorial of the Battle of Quatre Bras, which had been fought two days earlier, on 16 June 1815. The engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain conceived of it as a symbol of the Allied victory rather than as glorifying any sole individual.[2] The construction took place between 1823 and October 1826. The lion's statue was hoisted and placed on its pedestal at the top of the mound on the evening of 28 October 1826.[3]

Though tourism to the site had already begun the day after the battle, with Captain Mercer noting that, on 19 June 1815, "a carriage drove on the ground from Brussels, the inmates of which, alighting, proceeded to examine the field",[4] the monument's success only dates from the second half of the 19th century. In 1832, when Marshal Gérard's French troops passed through Waterloo to support the siege of the Citadel of Antwerp, which was still held by the Dutch, the lion's statue was almost toppled by the French soldiers. They even broke its tail.[5] It was not until 1863–64 that the promenade at the top of the hill was developed and the staircase built.

Later history

On 14 January 1999, landslides occurred on the Lion's Mound on the side of the Panorama building.[6] Similar damage occurred in 1995 and was repaired by driving 650 micro-piles.[7]

On 21 May 2015, the Waterloo 1815 Memorial was inaugurated to mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, at a cost of around €40 million, including renovation of adjacent structures.[8][9] Since then, there has been a fee for access to the Lion's Mound, which is only accessible via the nearby museum. On 28 February 2019, a concession contract was signed entrusting the site's tourism operation to the French company Kléber Rossillon until 2035, in return for an annual fee of €365,000 and two variable fees on turnover.[10][11]

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^ Hofschröer, Peter, 1815, The Waterloo Campaign, The German Victory p. 137, 200. ^ Lederer, André, Vifquain (Jean-Baptiste-Joseph), in Biographie Nationale, t. 43, col. 700-738. ^ Folklore brabançon (in French), 1940, no. 114, p. 474 ^ Mercer 1870, p. 345. ^ Jules Tarlier and Alphonse Wauters, La Belgique Ancienne et Moderne. Géographie et histoire des Communes Belges (in French), 1859 ^ La butte du Lion de Waterloo se fissure (in French), Le Soir, 15 January 1999, p. 17 ^ Eric Meeuwissen, 650 micropieux pour stabiliser les versants de la butte (in French), Le Soir, 12 January 1999, p. 23 ^ BO (24 November 2023). "40 millions pour le champ de bataille de Waterloo". DHnet (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2023. ^ N, Y. (24 November 2023). "Mémorial de Waterloo : une scénographie magnifique". DHnet (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2023. ^ "Waterloo 1815: les Français remportent la bataille pour gérer le Mémorial". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2023. ^ F, V. (24 November 2023). "Mémorial 1815 : le nouvel exploitant vise les 300.000 visiteurs par an". DHnet (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2023.