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The Unknown Soldier Of World War I * Belgium |
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The Congress Column (Colonne des Congrés) is the national monument of Belgium, located in the capitol city of Brussels. The tall spire was erected in 1859 as a symbol of Belgian independence and in tribute to the congress which drew up the Belgian constitution in 1830. At its peak is the statue of King Leopold I of Saxonia-Cobourg-Gotha, who became the first king on July 21, 1831.
At the foot of the column, which rises above all other nearby structures, are four allegoric statues to represent the four freedoms of Belgium:
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Education
Freedom of Association
Between them lies Belgium's Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers (from both world war), their memory kindled by an eternal flame and their final resting place adorned with flowers.
On November 11, 1922 (two years after the Unknown Soldiers of Great Britain and France were interred and one year after the burial of the American Unknown), the Unknown Belgium Soldier was laid to rest in similar circumstance and ceremony as had been his predecessors from World War I.
In preparation for the ceremony, five unidentified Belgian soldiers who had been killed in World War I were exhumed to lie in state at the railway station of Bruges. The five were selected from the five largest battlefields of World War I: Liége, Namur, Antwerp, Flanders, and the Yser.
On November 10, 1922 Raymond Haesebrouch, a crippled veteran from Bruges viewed the five coffins. General de Longueville asked him to choose one, and he selected the fourth to represent all of the unknown Belgian veterans who gave their lives during World War I.
The following day, the fourth anniversary of the armistice that concluded the war to end all wars, eight one-armed Belgium veterans accompanied the flag-draped casket as it was carried to the Colonne des Congrés. There the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in a vault at the front/base of the column.
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The inscription on the memorial tablet at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Brussels is written in both Dutch and French. At the close of the Second World War another tablet was added saying: |
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To Our War Heroes 1940 - 1945 |
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On April 7, 1998 His Royal Highness Prince Filip inaugurated a third plaque at the Tomb with the inscription: |
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To all Belgians that died in the service of peace since 1945 |
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The Foreign Unknown Soldiers of World War I |
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