The Lion's Mound (french: Butte du Lion, "Lion's Hillock/Knoll"; nl, Leeuw van Waterloo, "Lion of Waterloo") is a large conical artificial hill located in

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

in the municipality of

Braine-l'Alleud Braine-l'Alleud (; nl, Eigenbrakel ; wa, Brinne-l'-Alou) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, about south of Brussels. The municipality consists of the following districts: Braine-l'Alleud (includ ...

(Dutch: Eigenbrakel),

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. King William I of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

ordered its construction in 1820, and it was completed in 1826. It commemorates the location on the battlefield of Waterloo where a

musket ball A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

hit the shoulder of

William II of the Netherlands William II ( nl, Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, anglicized as William Frederick George Louis; 6 December 1792 – 17 March 1849) was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg. William II was the son of William ...

(the

Prince of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands. The title ...

) and knocked him from his horse during the battle. It is also a memorial of the

Battle of Quatre Bras The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras and was contested between ele ...

, which had been fought two days earlier, on 16 June 1815. The hill offers a vista of the battlefield, and is the anchor point of the associated museums and taverns in the surrounding Lion's Hamlet (french: le Hameau du Lion, links=no; nl, Gehucht met de Leeuw, links=no). Visitors who pay a fee may climb up the Mound's 226 steps, which lead to the statue and its surrounding overlook (where there are maps documenting the battle, along with observation telescopes); the same fee also grants admission to see the painting ''

Waterloo Panorama The Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo (french: Panorama de la Bataille de Waterloo) is a rotunda in Belgium that houses a monumental panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Waterloo. The neoclassical building is located immediately to the n ...

''. €16 for an adul
Waterloo Battlefield site: RatesFrench notice
)

Design

At the behest of William I, the Royal Architect Charles Vander Straeten designed the monument. The engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain conceived of it as a symbol of the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

victory rather than as glorifying any sole individual.

Hill

Earth from many parts of the battlefield, including the fields between

La Haye Sainte La Haye Sainte (named either after Jesus Christ's crown of thorns or a bramble hedge round a field nearby) is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it ...

farm and the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

's sunken lane, is in the huge man-made hill. The mount is in height and has a circumference of .

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

, in his novel ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'', wrote that the Duke of Wellington visited the site two years after the Mound's completion and said, "They have altered my field of battle!"Victor Hugo. ''

'
Chapter VII. "Napoleon in a Good Humor"
/ref> However, the alleged remark by Wellington as described by Hugo was never documented.

Statue

A statue of a lion standing upon a stone-block pedestal surmounts the hill. Jean-Louis Van Geel (1787–1852) sculpted the model lion, which closely resembles the 16th-century

Medici lions The Medici lions are a pair of marble sculptures of lions: one of which is Roman, dating to the 2nd century AD, and the other a 16th-century pendant. Both were by 1598 placed at the Villa Medici, Rome. Since 1789 they have been displayed at th ...

. The

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

is represented on the crests of both the

Royal Arms of England The royal arms of England are the Coat of arms, arms first adopted in a fixed form at the start of the age of heraldry (circa 1200) as Armorial of the House of Plantagenet, personal arms by the House of Plantagenet, Plantagenet kings who ruled ...

and the

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, or the royal arms for short, is the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently King Charles III. These arms are used by the King in his official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom. Varian ...

as well as on the personal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of the monarch of

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and symbolises courage. Waterloo medal Braemt

Its right front paw is upon a sphere, signifying global victory. The statue weighs , has a height of and a length of .

William Cockerill William Cockerill (1759–1832) was a British inventor, entrepreneur, and industrialist. Designing and producing machines for new industrial textile manufacturing, he is best known for having established a major manufacturing firm in what is now ...

's iron foundry in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

cast the lion, in sections; a canal barge brought those pieces to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

; from there, heavy horse-drays drew the parts to Mont-St-Jean, a low ridge south of Waterloo. There is a legend that the foundry melted down

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

from cannons that the French had left on the battlefield, in order to cast the metal lion. In reality, the foundry made nine separate partial casts in iron and assembled those components into one statue at the monument site.

References

External links

The Lion Mound Hamlet
local tourism organisation
Lion's Mound on BALaT - Belgian Art Links and Tools (KIK-IRPA, Brussels)
{{coord, 50, 40, 42, N, 4, 24, 17, E, type:landmark, display=title Wallonia's Major Heritage Mountains and hills of Wallonia Artificial hills Military monuments and memorials Monuments and memorials in Belgium Buildings and structures in Walloon Brabant Tourist attractions in Walloon Brabant Sculptures of lions Waterloo Battlefield locations Braine-l'Alleud Commemorative mounds 1826 establishments in the Southern Netherlands

Design

Hill

Statue

See also

References

External links