Battle of Waterloo

WATERLOO, Belgium: Historical landscape of battle changed the European history

By zerrinhosgor - 4/11/2010 09:37:00 AM

Waterloo is an important place in European history, because this place is remembered with Napoleon's defeat.

Waterloo
On the way of Brussels from Mons, we had seen lots of route signs written "Waterloo". And then we decided to change our way to Waterloo to see this interesting place. Waterloo is a very small city in Belgian province of Walloon-Brabant. When we reached there, we only saw a few buildings including cafes, restaurants, museum and bars and large open and green spaces, and I thought that there is no living population in here. That was right, because the residential part of the city was far from this area. This part of the city is special for tourists to see only battlefield. The monuments of the Waterloo- "Battu du Lion" located on the top of hill can be seen from road and of course you follow this landmark to reach that point.

Waterloo is the place where the "Battle of Waterloo" between French under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Brücher from Prussia took place. Although the fighting mostly took place in Braine-l'Alleud and the surrounding areas, history commemorates it under the name of "Battle of Waterloo" with its monument - the "Butte du Lion" (The Lion's Mound). The battle of Waterloo is one of the biggest battles in European history because of the consequences.

Waterloo

Waterloo battleWaterloo battlefield has been preserved almost it was in 1815 and it is a good example of the historical landscape of Waterloo. The Wellington museum (headquarters of Duke Wellington) presents now a panorama, fresco of battle. There was also a big historical re-enactment of the battle but it wasn't available on the date we had been there, but I wished I had seen it. Because in this event, thousands of re-enactors coming from all over the world gather for a magnificent reenactment of the events of 1815. Generally, the show takes place on the date of the battle which is 18th June. So maybe it is more meaningful to visit this historical landscape on these dates to live this atmosphere.


Waterloo


We went to Waterloo by car and saw lots of tourists coming with a group tour. So I had no idea about reaching this area by public transportation. But I think if you chose to come to Walloon region of Belgium, you had a few chance to take public transportation. It is better to rent a car for your stay, but the north parts of the Belgium are really accessible by public trains and by foot in the center of the cities. As a result of car transportation, you focus on only museum place and visit this place and leave from there very quickly. So I hadn't any chance to see residential part of the city. But architectural styles and streets in the museum place were really traditional and give you the inspiration of this historical atmosphere.

Napoleon statue

There is also a sculpture of Napoleon in memory of his defeat in here :) 


www.waterloo1815.be



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