Lion's Mound

Lion's Mound

Butte du Lion (French) Leeuw van Waterloo (Dutch)
The immense Butte du Lion ("Lion's Mound") overlooking the battlefield of Waterloo
50°40′42″N 4°24′17″E / 50.67833°N 4.40472°E / 50.67833; 4.40472
Location	Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium
Designer	Charles Vander Straeten, Jean-Louis Van Geel
Beginning date	1820 (1820)
Completion date	1826 (1826)
Dedicated to	Battle of Waterloo

The Lion's Mound (French: Butte du Lion, lit. "Lion's Hillock/Knoll"; Dutch: Leeuw van Waterloo, lit. "Lion of Waterloo") is a large conical artificial hill in the municipality of Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium. King William I of the Netherlands ordered its construction in 1820, and it was completed in 1826. It commemorates the spot on the battlefield of Waterloo where the king's elder son, Prince William of Orange, is presumed to have been wounded on 18 June 1815, as well as the Battle of Quatre Bras, which had been fought two days earlier.

The hill offers a vista of the battlefield, and is the anchor point of the associated museums and taverns in the surrounding Lion's Hamlet (French: Hameau du Lion; Dutch: Gehucht met de Leeuw).^[1] Visitors who pay a fee may climb up the mound's 226 steps,^[2] which lead to the statue and its surrounding overlook (where there are maps documenting the battle, along with observation telescopes); the same fee also grants admission to see the painting Waterloo Panorama.^[3]