WATERLOO - LE LION

Septimus and Clara Miller collected this card of the Lion’s Mound in 1907. I can imagine the two of them climbing those stairs to look over the battlefield near la Ferme de la Haie Sainte. These days a fee of €7 is charged to climb those 226 steps leading to the statue and observation area at its ‘peak’.

The ‘Mound’ is totally man-made. It is known as Lion's Mound or "Lion's Hillock", "Butte du Lion" in French & "Leeuw van Waterloo" in Dutch. It was created on the site where 'Slender Billy' aka William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of Orange) was knocked from his horse by a musket ball. The young wounded Prince William had fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June and the Battle of Waterloo two days later.

The hillock was built in 1826 just ten years after the battle on the orders of William I and was designed by the Dutch Royal Architect, Charles Van der Straeten. It commemorates the Allied Victory at Waterloo on Sunday 18 June, 1815.

The mound is immense! It is 43 m (141 ft) in height and has a circumference of 520 m (1706 ft). It is said to have a volume in excess of 390,000 m3 (514,000 yd3).

The shape is based on the tumulus of the Belgae, whom Julius Caesar had singled out as the bravest of the Gallic tribes.

It certainly dominates the area these days. According to Victor Hugo the Duke of Wellington was not impressed with it when he saw it in 1828.

The model lion at its summit was sculpted by Jean-François Van Geel (1756–1830). “The lion is the heraldic beast on the personal coat of arms of the monarch of The Netherlands, and symbolizes courage; its right front paw is upon a sphere, signifying global victory. The statue weighs 28 tonnes (31 tons), has a height of 4.45 m (14.6 ft) and a length of 4.5 m (14.8 ft). It was cast at the iron foundry of William Cockerill in Liège, whence it was brought by canal barge from Liège to Brussels, and thence by heavy horse-drays to its final site at Mont-St. Jean, a low ridge south of Waterloo.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion's_Mound

This is another of the E. Gregoire Series cards Series 5 No. 30.