Fighting the Cobbles - My trip to Belgium in 2018, Part 18 - Leaving Brussels (2)

This blog continues the previous Part 17,
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/08/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in_23.html

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

     

   After the Schuman roundabout I came to another green oasis in Brussels, the 'Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary' or the 'Parc du Cinquantenaire' (French) or 'Jubilee Park' (Dutch). This was quite a contrast to the noisy and busy roads and the buildings made of concrete.

   This large park is 30 hectares and in the easternmost part of the European Quarter. Originally this area was part of the military exercise ground outside of the center, the 'Linthout' plains. For the National Exhibition of 1880, the plain was developed into an exhibition center. The original pavilions were replaced with triumphal arcades in 1904. One glass-constructed Bordiau hall remained from the 1880 structures.

   I turned left and walked under high trees under the protective sun. During noon there were some visitors enjoying lunch in the garden, I took some pictures of the green trees and some people reading books or busy with their smart-phones.

   After a while I stepped out of the shadows of the trees, not far away from the above mentioned Bordiau Hall. Immediately when As soon as I left the shadows of the trees I immediately realized how comfortable it was. Within these few minutes the sun become so strong that it seemed like walking in an oven! 

   Most countries would prepare flowers for the visitors during the holiday season, but there were not many to see. Therefore I would not call it a garden but rather a grassland!

   

   But when I looked ahead I could not oversee the Triumphal Arch or Arcade du Cinquantenaire (French) which was planned for the exhibition of 1880 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands. But only the bases of the columns were completed in time, for the exhibition the rest was constructed from wooden panels. The following years the completion of the monument was a continuous battle between King Leopold II and the Belgian government which did not want to spend the big amount of money required to complete it. I do not know if these constant battles between the King and the Belgians let Leopold II refer to his own nation as "petit pays, petites gens" (small country, mall-minded people).

   Facing the Arch there is there are the Military Museum on the left and the Art & History Museums on the right which looks like a monumental continuous building from afar.

- Military Museum:

Already at the exhibition of 1910 a section of military history was presented to the public. Given the enthusiasm of the population the authorities established a museum of the army at a time of extreme tensions which lead to the First World War. The museum collection was dominated by approx. 900 pieces collected by the officer Louis Leconte following the Great War.

- Art & History Museums:

The museum consists of several parts which include artifacts from the prehistoric Merovingian period (751 AD) and a collection from the antiquity of the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome.  and Rome. Non-European civilizations such as China, Japan, Korea, pre-Columbian America and the Islamic world are also on display.

   The original architect of the Triumphal Arch was the Belgian Gideon Bordiau who spent close to 20 years on the project and died in 1904. King Leopold chose the French architect Charles Girault who changed the original single arch into a triple arch which was completed in 1905 just in Time for the 75th anniversary of the Belgian independence. There is a Quadriga (chariot drawn by four horses) on the top of the Arch with four figures representing four different parts of Belgium created by four different artists.

Quadriga on the Triumphal Arch

(to be continued @
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/09/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in.html)

Disclaimer: I traveled Belgium by myself, I am not sponsored by anyone. Interested subscribers and/or followers in traveling an in this small but beautiful country are more than welcome! If not convenient to subscribe on Blogger.com, I've started my own homepage @ https://gerhardwanninger.wixsite.com/travel