Ruiterstandbeeld van Leopold II (
Dutch) | |
![]() Statue of
King Leopold II | |
| |
51°13′38″N 2°54′17″E / 51.22715°N 2.90466°E | |
Location | Ostend, Belgium |
---|---|
Designer | Alfred Courtens |
Type | Equestrian statue |
Completion date | 1931 |
Dedicated to | King Leopold II |
The Equestrian Statue of Leopold II ( Dutch: Ruiterstandbeeld van Leopold II) is a monument erected in Ostend, Belgium, in memory of King Leopold II, second King of the Belgians. It is located on the Royal Galleries by the beach. [1] The king was commemorated here as a benefactor of Ostend and the Belgian Congo. The inauguration was on 19 July 1931. [1]
Partly due to Leopold II's colonial regime, the monument is the subject of ongoing controversy and has been vandalised several times. [2] [3] [4] [5]
During King Leopold II's reign, Thomas Vinçotte produced a portrait bust of the king, which is now in the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken. [6] Shortly after the king's death in 1909, plans started to honour him, as a benefactor of Ostend and the Belgian Congo. [6]
After the First World War, the city government started work on plans for a statue. [6] The sculptor Alfred Courtens was commissioned, together with his brother, the architect Antoine Courtens. [7] [1] The City Council may have hoped to regain the dynasty as summer residents but after Leopold II's death, Ostend's status as a royal summer residence quickly crumbled. [6] [7] On 22 September 1981, the statue was declared a protected monument. [7]
The Equestrian Statue of Leopold II is known locally as De Drie Gapers ("The Three Gaps"). [7] [8] The middle of the three passages was made on the sea side. [9]
The monument has an important architectural part that roughly consists of a voluminous upright column, with two horizontal bases on the left and right. [9] This gives a form of a kind of double L monogram (two L's turned away from each other), the monogram that Leopold II often used. [9] On top in bronze, Leopold II sits in military uniform on horseback looking over the North Sea. [9]
At the bottom left a larger than life sculptural group, also in bronze, depicting Gratitude of the Congolese to Leopold II for freeing them from slavery among the Arabs. [9] [1] On the right, a pendant, depicting Tribute of the Ostend fishing population. [1]
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State; a private project was undertaken on his behalf. [10] He used the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [10] At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improve the lives of the native inhabitants. [10]
From the beginning, Leopold ignored these conditions and millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated and killed. [10] He used great sums of the money from this exploitation for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period. [10] He donated the private buildings to the state before his death. [10]
Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the natives to harvest and process rubber. [10] Under his regime, millions of Congolese people died. [10]
Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908. [10]
The monument has been vandalised in 2004 and 2020. [2] [3] [4] [5] In 2004, an activist group, De Stoete Ostendenoare, symbolically cut off a bronze hand from one of the kneeling Congolese slaves who, as part of the Gratitude of the Congolese group in the monument, honours Leopold II. [1] This was a reference to how Congolese slaves' hands were cut off if they did not produce enough rubber during Leopold's colonial regime. [1] The activists were willing to give the hand back if a historically correct sign would be placed near the statue. [11]
The statue was vandalised again in 2020 as part of the global Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. A petition to remove such statues was started to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence from Belgium on 30 June 2020. [2] [3] [4] [5] On 9 June 2020, Ostend mayor Bart Tommelein said that the city council "takes the fight against racism very seriously" but "replacing or removing statues will not happen". [12]
Ruiterstandbeeld van Leopold II (
Dutch) | |
![]() Statue of
King Leopold II | |
| |
51°13′38″N 2°54′17″E / 51.22715°N 2.90466°E | |
Location | Ostend, Belgium |
---|---|
Designer | Alfred Courtens |
Type | Equestrian statue |
Completion date | 1931 |
Dedicated to | King Leopold II |
The Equestrian Statue of Leopold II ( Dutch: Ruiterstandbeeld van Leopold II) is a monument erected in Ostend, Belgium, in memory of King Leopold II, second King of the Belgians. It is located on the Royal Galleries by the beach. [1] The king was commemorated here as a benefactor of Ostend and the Belgian Congo. The inauguration was on 19 July 1931. [1]
Partly due to Leopold II's colonial regime, the monument is the subject of ongoing controversy and has been vandalised several times. [2] [3] [4] [5]
During King Leopold II's reign, Thomas Vinçotte produced a portrait bust of the king, which is now in the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken. [6] Shortly after the king's death in 1909, plans started to honour him, as a benefactor of Ostend and the Belgian Congo. [6]
After the First World War, the city government started work on plans for a statue. [6] The sculptor Alfred Courtens was commissioned, together with his brother, the architect Antoine Courtens. [7] [1] The City Council may have hoped to regain the dynasty as summer residents but after Leopold II's death, Ostend's status as a royal summer residence quickly crumbled. [6] [7] On 22 September 1981, the statue was declared a protected monument. [7]
The Equestrian Statue of Leopold II is known locally as De Drie Gapers ("The Three Gaps"). [7] [8] The middle of the three passages was made on the sea side. [9]
The monument has an important architectural part that roughly consists of a voluminous upright column, with two horizontal bases on the left and right. [9] This gives a form of a kind of double L monogram (two L's turned away from each other), the monogram that Leopold II often used. [9] On top in bronze, Leopold II sits in military uniform on horseback looking over the North Sea. [9]
At the bottom left a larger than life sculptural group, also in bronze, depicting Gratitude of the Congolese to Leopold II for freeing them from slavery among the Arabs. [9] [1] On the right, a pendant, depicting Tribute of the Ostend fishing population. [1]
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State; a private project was undertaken on his behalf. [10] He used the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [10] At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improve the lives of the native inhabitants. [10]
From the beginning, Leopold ignored these conditions and millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated and killed. [10] He used great sums of the money from this exploitation for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period. [10] He donated the private buildings to the state before his death. [10]
Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the natives to harvest and process rubber. [10] Under his regime, millions of Congolese people died. [10]
Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908. [10]
The monument has been vandalised in 2004 and 2020. [2] [3] [4] [5] In 2004, an activist group, De Stoete Ostendenoare, symbolically cut off a bronze hand from one of the kneeling Congolese slaves who, as part of the Gratitude of the Congolese group in the monument, honours Leopold II. [1] This was a reference to how Congolese slaves' hands were cut off if they did not produce enough rubber during Leopold's colonial regime. [1] The activists were willing to give the hand back if a historically correct sign would be placed near the statue. [11]
The statue was vandalised again in 2020 as part of the global Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. A petition to remove such statues was started to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence from Belgium on 30 June 2020. [2] [3] [4] [5] On 9 June 2020, Ostend mayor Bart Tommelein said that the city council "takes the fight against racism very seriously" but "replacing or removing statues will not happen". [12]