Leopoldsburg and Kamp Beverlo, the army camp that grew a town

Apart from a few monumental buildings the town of Leopoldsburg isn't very esthetically pleasing. The buildings were never built according to an overarching plan or vision, only the layout of streets was predetermined. This has led to a hotchpotch of building styles very common in Belgium. Many buildings are merely constructed and are visibly not designed. This makes for a great variety but also gives the impression of unordered private initiative. The links between the town grid and military camp have been well executed. The neighbouring Kamp Beverlo is totally different. Both layout and buildings have been designed along certain principles and a lot of thought has gone into placement of the volumes. The military camp is very leafy and spacious with buildings and monuments dotted about, often on sightlines, giving the impression of a park. 

 

The station has been built on the extended central axis of the Kamp Beverlo grid. The yellow colour contrast greatly with the surrounding brick built buildings. With the sun bouncing of it, it's even visible from the edge of the military camp.

 

An aggressive looking lion crowns the war memorial in front of the city hall on the very spacious Astridplein, a rectangular square named in honour of Queen Astrid of Belgium (1905-1935). On the extended axis of the town grid a memorial chapel has been built, it forms the centre of the honorary military cemetery on the edge of the royal park.

 

This convent dominates the second square in Leopoldsburg. This large open space has been planted as a public garden and was named Koning Albert I plein in honour of Albert I King of the Belgians (1875-1934). The complex has been built around the first church of Leopoldsburg.

The royal park lies at the heart of Kamp Beverlo and functions as the urban park of the adjoining town of Leopoldsburg. It was clearly designed in a mixed style with naturalistic planting and undulating paths within a framework of vistas and formal avenues. Next to where the royal palace once stood the pavilion of the Minister of War still stands. It is hidden from view by some shrubs.

 

This eclectic building (1869) inspired by Bavarian and Japanese architecture is situated on the edge of the royal park. It is known as the pavilion of the Commander of the Royal Engineers. As that name suggests it was meant to be an ornamental building within the royal park. It is still in use.

 

The military camp has several large monuments placed on its long tree lined avenues. On the left the Tacambaro Monument (1867) commemorating the battle of the same name, fought in Mexico by Belgian troops as part of the French army on April 14 1865. Leopold's daughter Charlotte was married to Maximilian King of Mexico. The monument shows the emblematic eagle with the snake, a symbol for Mexico. On the right the monument placed on the central axis of the royal palace on the edge of the parade ground commemorates General Pierre Emanuel Chazal (1808-1892) who played an important part in the independence of Belgium both as a politician and a military officer. He also designed the army camp of Beverlo.

The parade ground was formerly known as La place du canon (Canon Square), named after the alarm canon placed here in 1837. After the Great War the name was changed to the current Zegeplaats (Victory Place). It is sometimes also referred to as Overwinningsplaats (Triumph Place).

Spread along the avenues large houses were built for officers of the Belgian armed forces. The early houses are places as pavilion in a park like setting. These buildings are always detached villas in an eclectic style. Two examples can be seen here. Later buildings (after 1918) are semidetached en more formally placed in rows along tree lined streets.

The whole of the Kamp Beverlo is very spacious with long tree lined avenues, woodland and the occasional building. On the eastside the military barracks for ordinary soldiers are still located behind high fences. The rest of the military camp serves as a large park to the inhabitants of the neigbouring town of Leopoldsburg.

Little known grids: Leopoldsburg

Civilians working at Beverlo Military Camp built small dwellings on the edges of the camp. Thus the hamlet of Boskant came into existence. It was located on both sides of the Korteketenbrug (literally: small chain bridge) across the Bosbeek, a small brook on the edge of the heath. This was the old route via dirt tracks to the heath from Beverlo. With so many young men concentrated at close proximity this hamlet by the army camp quickly became the domicile of prostitutes, "cabaret" performers and innkeepers. North of the royal park with its pavilions for high-ranking officers, ministers and other officials settlers were allowed to build dwellings. These consisted mainly of wood, straw and sods. Some took the form of log cabins reminiscent of the American Wild West. This makeshift village was nicknamed Hureldorp after General Hurel who had allowed these settlers to build their huts and cabins.

The situation was seen as less than favourable with prostitutes and amusement on the one side and paupers and low skilled workers on the other side of the camp. In 1841 the architect V. Bourg is asked to design a new settlement for civilians on a 26 hectare (104 acre) plot west of the Kamp Beverlo. In 1842 the people living in the huts were forcibly relocated to the planned town of Bourg-Léopold. It would take until 1932 before this new Flemish town got its official Dutch name: Leopoldsburg*. In 1843 a small church was erected just outside of the Beverlo Military Camp. This was to be the focal point of the new town here. In 1906 a much larger church was erected south of the town. The small old church was first used as warehouse and from 1924 onwards as the congregational chapel of the Sisters Carmelite who were invited to found a convent in the town. In 1850 the first mayor is elected. This former sergeant major committed himself to the development of the town by lobbying for a shipping channel (1857-Kanaal van Beverlo), a railway connection (1887), establishing schools, paving the streets and improving public health.

The original layout of Leopoldsburg is very simple and was aimed at providing a ordered settlement enhancing the neighbouring Kamp Beverlo. It was connected to al the new thoroughfares via the army camp. It wasn't until the end of the nineteenth century that the army camp was reached from the north via the town. When the army camp was established a new metalled road (Diestersteenweg) was constructed to the existing village of Heppen in the west. A similar straight road (the Hechtelsesteenweg) linked the camp to Hechtel. This road forms the Via Principalis of the army camp. It was extended to form the central axis of the town of Leopoldsburg. With these new roads the route via the Korteketenbrug and Boskant became obsolete.

The town grid of Leopoldsburg is independent from the grid of the neighbouring Beverlo Military Camp. The old town consisted of 8 gridcels devided into 12 (shown in red). Along the Diestersteenweg a second grid (shown in orange) was laid out on the other side of the railway.

The town Leopoldsburg comprises of a grid with two squares. The gridlines are extensions of the neigbouring military camp (Kamp Beverlo). Later on the grid is extended northwards and westward behind the railway tracks. De military camp is also extended behind the church beyond the main axis of the town. Town and military camp were constructed according to plans drawn up by baron Chazal and colonel Demanet.

The formalized grid of Leopoldsburg consists of several axes.

The grid of Leopoldsburg was formalized by erecting public buildings on the axes of the grid. All these buildings except the station building (S) are situated along the secondary axis that links the formal squares. Of these the Koningin Astridplein (A) is treated as the main square with the town hall (T) dominating the space. In front of it the war memorial (W) is positioned next to the secondary axis. The second public space is a green square with the old church (C) built on the axis of the grid. It now forms part of the convent that dominates the whole eastside of this square. The new church (N) is located beyond the old town grid with the tower terminating the secondary axis. The post office (P) terminates the southernmost gridline of the old town grid. This axis was executed as a double avenue. The statue of Christ (X) in the corner of the green square was chosen as the focal point for the second grid beyond the rail tracks.  The railway station terminates the Via Principalis of both town and army camp.

* Although the language of the Flemish people was a Dutch dialect, the language spoken by the elite, officials and also the king was French. French was considered the only appropriate language by the nobility. Leopold I thus spoke German and French. Most official terminology in the early years of the independent Belgium was in French only. This sowed the seeds for the language struggle still in existence in present-day Belgium.

Little known grids: Kamp Beverlo

Between 1831 and 1839 a truce was declared between Belgium and the Netherlands. After the southern part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands had declared its independence in 1830, king William I refused to recognize the fledgling state of Belgium. This partly because of his stubbornness and partly because he felt outraged by the Belgians for asking Leopold Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Hertzog of Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) to be their new monarch. The independence of Belgium was settled in the Treaty of London in 1839. The border issues remained from the moment the border was marked out by boundary-posts in 1843, until the final border treaty was signed in 1999. The border conflicts were mainly administrative in nature.

The accommodation for the soldiers on maneuvers, the straw huts that housed 24 and housing provided for the permanent military staff were in great contrast. One of these straw huts has been reconstructed on site.

From 1832 small encampments are raised along the provisionary border of the Belgian state to ward off any military intervention from the north. They prove very costly and hardly effective, so Leopold King of the Belgians starts planning a single large camp near the border where infantry, cavalry and artillery can jointly exercise. In 1834 he surveys a vast and desolate heath (the Grote Heide van Beverlo) and decides, stood there, that this is the spot for building his large military encampment. The land is very cheap, the area is sparsely populated and there is an abundant supply of fresh drinking water because of several small brooks. At the beginning of 1835 the National Assembly approves the creation of the Beverlo Military Camp (le Camp de Beverlo). In less than four months 400 barracks are transported there from Diest, over one thousand tents are raised and hundreds of straw huts are built. In August the camp is ready and over 20.000 soldiers are brought in for the first large scale military exercise.

The layout of the Beverlo Military Camp is a regular grid projected on the former heath. It closely follows the roman layout of a military camp (castrum). The grid is measured along an east-west axis (the Via Principalis, the present Hechtelsesteenweg) and a north-south axis (the Via Prætoria, the present Gravin van Vlaanderenlaan).The first grid was measured out as 7x7 cells. This grid was later extended around the edges. These extensions don't follow the original grid by default.

To house all this military personnel a grid was marked out on the flat heathland. The tradition of basing military encampments on grid layouts is very ancient and of course best known from the Romans. In Kamp Beverlo a similar approach was chosen. A geodetic point was marked out from which all the measurements were taken. It is now situated in the Royal Park (Koninklijk Park) that was planted in 1845 around the wooden palace built in 1835. The palace took the shape of a large bungalow style building with neoclassical columns and tympana. Together with the pavilions for the Minister of War and the General Staff (also built in wood and straw) this royal palace formed the centre of the camp. In 1886 the pavilions were replaced with buildings in brick with slate roofs. In 1913 the wooden palace was torn down to make way for a new brick and stone-built structure. It was never built due to the onset of the great War. The palace once stood south of the crossing point of the two main axis of the camp. After 1850 the military camp was greatly expanded. Between 1845 and 1848 work had started on providing for the planned capacity of 40.000 soldiers and 4.000 horses. A military hospital was built along with schools, a slaughterhouse, a laundry and a bakery. In the military camp two streets dissect the grid to form a birds foot motif focused on the royal palace. This is a very formal expression of power derived from baroque garden design. Across from the royal palace a large parade ground was leveled. It serves as the central square of the military camp. The camp had its own railway station. The camp was once linked to the railway with narrow-gauge tracks running through Kamp Beverlo. Now broken up, parts of the track can still be seen.

The royal palace made for a secondary spatial motif superimposed on this grid making it very recognizable as the Kamp Beverlo. This royal encampment had a royal palace (R) at its heart that was the focus of a formal fan of 5 streets. Of this fan 3 streets are still recognizable as a birds foot motif. Next to the palace the pavilion of the Minister of War (M) stood with the pavilion of the General Staffs (S). On the edges of the royal park (K) a pavilion (P) was built for the Cavalry officers. On the other edge the pavilion for the Commander of the Royal Engineers (C) was erected. South of the royal park the new park (N) was planted. On one of the axis another pavilion was built. Opposite the Tacambaro Monument was erected. After the Great War an honorary military cemetery (E - erebegraafplaats) was made on the outer gridline of the grid. On the main axis of the royal palace the large statue honouring Chaval (C) was erected. It marks the edge of the Zegeplaats (Z -Victory Place) in front of the royal park.