100 Years Ago Today (November 11, 1922) The Unknown Soldier of Belgium is interred in a mausoleum at the base of the Congress Column in Brussels on the third anniversary of the end of the Great War.
100 Years Ago Today (November 11, 1922) The Unknown Soldier of Belgium is interred in a mausoleum at the base of the Congress Column in Brussels on the third anniversary of the end of the Great War.
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The first stone of the Congress Column was laid down in presence of King Leopold I on 24 September 1850 and the monument was inaugurated on 26 September 1859.[10] The architect Joseph Poelaert (who was later to also build Brussels’ Palace of Justice) was responsible for the execution of the works, under the supervision of the Monuments Commission, and the sculptures of the monument were entrusted to five sculptors, amongst which Eugène Simonis.
In the centre of the Place des Panoramas, renamed the Place du Congrès for the occasion, the column became the focal point of the neighbouring Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges/Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Sneeuw district (today’s Freedom Quarter). The development plans for this formerly mostly working-class district, cleaned up between 1875 and 1885, attempted to free up the perspective of the column and organise the road network around it accordingly. At the same time, the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar took charge of creating, below the square, a covered market which replaced some populous alleys or ill-famed dead-ends bordering the (now-disappeared) Rue des Cailles/Kwartelstraat.
The Belgian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame was installed at the foot of the Congress Column in 1922, in memory of the Belgian soldiers who died during World War I. In 1929, it was the site of an attempted assassination of Crown Prince Umberto of Italy by Fernando de Rosa.
Severely degraded by time, the Congress Column was cleaned in 1968 for the first time since its erection. The monument was again the subject between 1997 and 2008 of major renovation works divided into different phases. In 2001, the plinth and the four corner bronze statues underwent a deep cleaning, using the laser technique. The corner statues were then coated with wax. In July 2002, work began on cleaning and restoring the column itself, again using laser cleaning technology. The works were finished in November 2002, allowing for the Armistice Day ceremonies to take place at the site.
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Ended up here by chance at 11AM and again at 5.30PM, each time there was a ceremony ongoing.
Also spotted the (very nice) wreath u/WarHeritageInstitute put at the grave of the unknown soldier.