Colonne du Congrès: Monument to Belgian Liberty

Why is it significant?

Gaze up at the monumental fluted Doric column of the Colonne du Congrès, soaring forty-seven meters above the terrace overlooking the lower city.

Key Facts

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Gaze up at the monumental fluted Doric column of the Colonne du Congrès, soaring forty-seven meters above the terrace overlooking the lower city. Erected between eighteen fifty and eighteen fifty-nine to the designs of architect Joseph Poelaert, this triumphal monument celebrates the National Congress of eighteen thirty, which drafted the progressive Belgian Constitution following the revolution against Dutch rule. The monument was modeled after Trajan's Column in Rome, though Poelaert chose a simpler Doric order executed in crisp blue limestone quarried from the Meuse Valley.

The summit of the column is crowned by a colossal five-meter bronze statue of King Leopold the First, Belgium's first monarch, sculpted by Guillaume Geefs. Around the granite pedestal sit four seated bronze allegorical statues representing the constitutional freedoms won by the revolutionaries: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of education.

At the foot of the column burns the eternal flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, inaugurated in nineteen twenty-two following the horrors of the First World War. Beneath a simple black granite slab rests an unidentified Belgian soldier who fell on the battlefields of Flanders, flanked by two monumental bronze lions guarding the memory of all fallen national defenders. The cornerstone was laid on Belgium's twenty-first anniversary of independence in eighteen fifty, in the presence of Prince Leopold, the future King Leopold the Second, amidst thunderous cannon salutes and military parades.

From this elevated terrace, look out across the urban valley of Brussels toward the rooftops of the lower town. You are standing on the geological escarpment that historically separated the aristocratic government quarter from the crowded artisan neighborhoods that gave birth to Belgium's rich comic book culture. Beneath the viewing balustrade, the monumental Congress Esplanade slopes downward via curving ramps that were once illuminated by hundreds of ornate nineteenth-century gas lanterns.

Walk down the steps of Rue des Sables, heading westward into the historic publishing quarter toward the glazed iron portals of the Belgian Comic Strip Center.