Battlefield of Waterloo

The Field Where Wellington And Blucher Defeated Napoleon On 18 June 1815, With The Lion'S Mound, The Underground Memorial 1815, The Hougoumont Farm And A Large Re Enactment In Some Years · Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant Province

The Battlefield of Waterloo is the rolling farmland about 20 km south of Brussels where, on 18 June 1815, the Anglo-allied army of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussians under Blucher defeated Napoleon and ended his rule for good. The battle takes its name from the town where Wellington wrote his report, but the main visitor site - the Lion's Mound and the underground Memorial 1815 museum - stands a few kilometres south, in Braine-l'Alleud. The field is still largely open country, with the farms that were fought over, such as Hougoumont, still standing. People come for the climb up the Lion's Mound, the modern museum and film, the Panorama painting of 1912, the restored Hougoumont farm and the houses where Wellington and Napoleon stayed. The honest caveat: this is a scattered site, and without a car or a plan the pieces are hard to link; the museums are good, but the field itself is quiet farmland that needs imagination, and the big re-enactment happens only in some years.

Memorial 1815 and the Lion's Mound, Route du Lion, Braine-l'Alleud, about 20 km south of Brussels; Wellington's headquarters museum is in Waterloo town, Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant Province, Belgium

Memorial 1815, the Lion's Mound and the Panorama usually open every day, roughly 9.30 am to 6 or 6.30 pm from spring to autumn and shorter, about 10 am to 5 pm, in winter, with last entry about an hour before closing - check the current schedule. Hougoumont keeps similar hours but may close in the depth of winter. The Wellington Museum in Waterloo town is generally open daily, while the Napoleon Last HQ at Le Caillou has more limited days and may close on Mondays or in winter - confirm it is open. Getting there: TEC buses run from Brussels-Midi through Waterloo town to the Lion's Mound in about 45-60 minutes; the SNCB/NMBS stations at Waterloo and Braine-l'Alleud are each several kilometres from the field, so a bus or taxi is needed. Book ahead for re-enactment weekends in June, when tickets and grandstand places sell out.

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