Page 227 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

BEL GIUM AND L UXEMBOURG  225

night before the battle. Its
narrow rooms are packed with
curios alongside plans and
models of the battlefield.
The Musée de Cires (Wax-
work Museum) has models of
soldiers dressed in period
uniforms, while the Eglise
St-Joseph contains dozens of
memorial plaques to the British
soldiers who died at Waterloo.
For an excellent view over the
battlefield, head for the Butte
de Lion, a 45 m (148 ft) high
earthen mound, 3 km (2 miles)
The Pacification Hall in Ghent’s Stadhuis, with its impressive tiled floor south of the town. Next to it is a
gallery where Louis Demoulin’s
12th century, although most + Het Gravensteen fascinating circular painting
parts, including the gatehouse, Sint-Veerleplein. Tel 09-225 9306. Panorama de la Bataille is displayed.
were built later. Open 9am–5pm daily (Apr–Oct:
Many of Ghent’s finest historic 10am–6pm). & E Musée Wellington
buildings are found on Graslei, a E Museum voor Schone Kunsten Chaussée de Bruxelles 147. Tel 02-357
picturesque street that borders Citadelpark. Tel 09-240 0700. 2860. Open 10am–5pm daily. &
the Leie River. The street is lined Open 10am–6pm Tue–Sun.
with well-preserved guildhalls & 8 7
dating from the Middle Ages.
The magnificent St Baafs- 5 Waterloo
kathedraal has features
representing every phase of * 30,000. £ @ n Chaussée de
the Gothic style. In a small side Bruxelles 218 (02-352 0910).
chapel is one of Europe’s most ∑ waterloo-tourisme.com
remarkable paintings, Jan van
Eyck’s Adoration of the Mystic This small town is most famous
Lamb (1432). Opposite the for its association with the Battle
cathedral stands the huge of Waterloo, which saw Napoleon
14th-century Belfort (belfry). and his French army defeated by
From the top of the tower the Duke of Wellington’s troops
you can enjoy splendid views on June 18, 1815. The best place
of the city. From here, it is a to start a visit here is the Musée
short walk to the Stadhuis Wellington, which occupies the The Butte de Lion, viewed from the
(Town Hall), whose Pacification inn where Wellington stayed the battlefield of Waterloo
Hall was the site of the signing
of the Pacification of Ghent The Battlefields of Belgium
(a declaration of the Low
Countries’ repudiation of Belgium’s strategic position between France and Germany has
Spanish rule) in 1576. long made it the battleground, or “cockpit,” of Europe. Napoleon’s
Ghent’s largest collection of defeat at Waterloo was just one of many major conflicts resolved
fine art, covering all periods on Belgian soil. In the early 18th century, French expansion under
up to the 20th century, is in Louis XIV was thwarted here, and more recently, Belgium witnessed
the Museum voor Schone some of the bloodiest trench warfare of World War I, including the
Kunsten, some 20 minutes’ introduction of poison gas at Ypres (Ieper). Today, there are several
walk southeast of the center. vast graveyards, where the tens of thousands of soldiers who died
on the Western Front lie buried.
There are works by Rubens
and his contemporaries Jacob
Jordaens and Anthony van
Dyck. Occupying an elegant
18th-century townhouse, the
Design Museum Gent is a
decorative-arts museum, with
lavishly furnished 17th-, 18th-,
and 19th-century period rooms.
An extension covers modern
design, from Art Nouveau to Aftermath of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres), 1917
contemporary works.

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