Discover 4 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Braine-l'Alleud (Belgium). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Lion's Mound, Hougoumont, and War Memorial. Also, be sure to include La Médiathèque de Braine l'Alleud in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Braine-l'Alleud (Wallonie).
Table of Contents
Lion's Mound
Also known as: Butte du Lion
Battle. The Lion's Mound is a large conical artificial hill located in Wallonia in the municipality of Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium. King William I of the Netherlands ordered its construction in 1820, and it was completed in 1826. It commemorates the location on the battlefield of Waterloo where a musket ball hit the shoulder of William II of the Netherlands and knocked him from his horse during the battle. It is also a memorial of the Battle of Quatre Bras, 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; Dutch: Gehucht met de Leeuw). 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.[1]
Address: Route du Lion 315, 1420 Braine-l'Alleud
Hougoumont
Tourist attraction in Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium. Château d'Hougoumont is a walled farm compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one of the advanced defensible positions of the Anglo-allied army under the Duke of Wellington, that faced Napoleon's Army at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
Hougoumont, which had become dilapidated, was fully restored in time for the 200th anniversary of the battle and opened to the public on 18 June 2015.[2]
Address: Chemin du Goumont, 1420 Braine-l'Alleud
War Memorial
Also known as: Monument aux Morts
Monuments aux Morts are French war memorials established to commemorate the losses of World War I. After the end of the 1914–1918 war there was a frenzy to build memorials to commemorate those who had been killed and it has been calculated that in this period well over 36,000 individual memorials were erected throughout France with the majority of these being built between 1919 and 1926. These memorials are known as monuments aux morts - literally monuments to the dead and what are known in the United Kingdom as war memorials.[3]
La Médiathèque de Braine l'Alleud
Address: Rue des Mésanges Bleues 55, Braine-l'Alleud