The Monument to the Dynasty is a monument in honor of King Leopold I of Belgium in the Park of Laeken in Brussels. The monument is located on Vorstenhuisplein on a hilltop 50 meters high. The monument ends the monumental axis that departs from the portal of the castle of Laeken and runs to the monument after the intersection with the Royal Parklaan via the Vorstenhuislaan.
The monument was designed by architect Louis De Curte in neo-Gothic style. It was worked on from 1878 to 1881 by order of King Leopold II. Leopold II had the monument erected in honor of the founding of the dynasty by his father, whom he had succeeded as King of the Belgians in 1865. The monument should have been completed in 1880, at the opening of the Park of Laeken on the fiftieth anniversary of the Kingdom of Belgium.
In the center of a gallery with nine bays, each symbolizing one of the former nine Belgian provinces, stands a sculpture of Leopold I. On this substructure rests an almost 50 meter high spire, crowned with a gilded crown.
Above the statues of the nine Belgian provinces, a Belgian lion always holds the coat of arms of the province in question. At the rear of the monument, on the north side, is a staircase that gives access to a circular walkway above the colonnade. This tour goes under the flying buttresses decorated with small gargoyles.
The statue of Leopold I was sculpted by Willem Geefs, who also made the statue of Leopold I on the Congress column. The statues of the provinces are each by different sculptors: Charles Brunin (Hainaut), Frans Deckers (Antwerp), Albert Desenfans (Luxembourg), Adolphe Fassin (Liège), Hendrik Pickery (West Flanders), Gérard Vander Linden (East Flanders ), Charles Van der Stappen (Brabant), Antoine van Rasbourg (Limburg) and Thomas Vinçotte (Namur).
Monument in flamboyant neo-Gothic style, by architect Louis De Curte, who was inspired for its execution at the Albert Memorial in London (G.G. Scott and J.H. Foley, 1872-1875). The monument was designed in honor of Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians, at the initiative of his son Leopold II.
It was inaugurated on 12.07.1880, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian Independence, and it was drawn up
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