The Big Deal about Waterloo, Napoleon and the Butte du Lion

Ever have one of those songs you just cannot get out of your mind? It’s there when you wake up, you find yourself humming it in the grocery store or on the train. People stare. Someone asks, ”What IS that song?”

Mine is Waterloo. Made famous by the Swedish rock group ABBA in the 70’s. I recently visited the place behind the song and the legend on a trip through Belgium.

Belgium’s Most Famous Monument

The museum and monument sneak up on you. Waterloo is the battlefield part of a small town just south of Brussels called Braine-l’Alleud, made famous as the site of the final defeat of Emperor Napoleon I on June 15, 1815. The museum is impressive without being overdone. A 30-minute, well-produced video presentation documents the events leading up to and including the infamous battle which redefined the political boundaries of Europe.

Overlooking the battlefield is a huge, artificial hill called The Lion’s Mound with stairs leading up to the top. There, an imposing cast-iron lion sits atop a granite block. At its foot is a rotunda housing the Panorama of the Battle, a vast circular painting. Nearby, the Memorial 1815 is an underground center illustrating the battle’s historic importance. In 1826 on the order of King William I, the Royal Architect Charles Vander Straeten designed the monument.

226 Steps to the Top

The lion symbolises the victory of the allied armies defying France. One of his paws is laid on a globe symbolising peace being restored and the Battle of Waterloo bringing an end to these belligerent years…

Waterloo Tourisme

Napoleon had returned to France from his exile on the island of Elba while the Congress of Vienna was in session. On March 13th, seven days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw, and on March 25th Austria, Prussia, Russia and the  United Kingdom, the four Great Powers and key members of the Seventh Coalition each assigned 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.

This set the stage for the last conflict in the Napoleonic Wars, the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the second restoration of the French kingdom and the permanent exile of Napoleon to the distant island of Saint Helena where he died in May 1821.

Four days after the Battle of Waterloo, coalition forces entered Paris on July 7, 1815.

Immortalized by ABBA in 1974

My, my
At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender
Oh, yeah
And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo
I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo
Promise to love you forever more

Click below to listen. You’re welcome.