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It's a small-town of Walloon Brabant in Belgium, a wide world-famous locate that is just about the synonymous in several languages connected with a terrible loss. Outlined even as "black backwoods" by Victor Hugo, it awarded its identity in a UK train station and became the views of a bloody combat. Biggest European powers battled indeed there within the eighteenth June 1815. By the end of that horrible date, 60,000 casualties (deceased luxury villa rentals and wounded) were definitely lying along the ground, as long as eyes will find along with the environment was actually red with blood stream.
Perhaps you have guessed its name? Waterloo, located approximately twenty-five km southern area of Brussels, the main city of Belgium and also the EU Union. Nowadays, this very cosmopolitan not to mention flourishing city, along with its great boutiques, its household neighbourhoods and also its international Colleges, yet keeps a close relationship due to its brilliant past.
Per year, a commemoration associated with enhanced or lower degree occurs around the battleground, however for many months, the whole city has-been busily planning that special event, on the 18th June 2015, of the bicentenary of War of Waterloo.
For four days, thousands of history buffs,in the presence of kings, presidents and Prime Ministers, will admire the festivity that will start on the 18th June and will finish on the 21st June 2015. According to the organizers, the ceremony will be dazzling and the show will feature fights, fireworks, lighting and sound effects. Of course, the most expected part will be the entire reconstitution of the battle.

Nowadays, the battle field is not exactly as it was in the 19th century
Numerous monuments dedicated to the memory of those who died or were wounded in battle, are still standing in the countryside and are included in the guided tours as well as some building that also played a role in the battle. One of the most famous is the Wellington Museum, located at the heart of the town of Waterloo. At the time of the battle, it was an inn where the Duke of Wellington had set up his headquarters and were he stayed on the 17th and 18th June 1815. It became a museum in 1955 and it presents a large collection of old weapons, dating from the time of the battle. Some rooms are also dedicated to the French and Prussian armies.
On the top of hill, a huge lion, a paw on a globe, dominates the battlefield. . It was built between 1824 and 1826, at the request of King William of the Netherlands in honour of his son, the Prince of Orange, who was wounded during the fight. Year after year, it became such a touristic place that a staircase of 226 steps was added in 1863.
The guided tours also include the Panorama and its extraordinary and immense mural painting, one of the biggest of the military art, which represents dramatic scenes of the battle. The combination of the unique skill of the artist and the loud and original soundtrack will place you in the middle of the fight.
British, Dutch and Prussians, forming the Allied armies and gathering 210.000 soldiers, under the command of Wellington and Blücher, fought the Great Army of Napoleon, 125.000 men in total.
Napoleon left Paris on the 12th June 1815 and on the 14thJune, he had already formed his army and set off to Brussels. On the 18th June, Wellington rose before dawn, he wanted the attack to take place on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, near Waterloo, but awaited confirmation from the support of Blücher. If he had not received, he would have moved toward Brussels.
Waterloo was at a strategic location on a paved road leading to Brussels. This explains why the battle took place south of the city: the allies wanted to prevent Napoleon from reaching Brussels at any cost and Waterloo was the last inhabited village. Beyond was the forest and then, Brussels...
As Victor Hugo wrote in the "“Had it not rained on the night of 17th/18th June 1815, the future of Europe would have been different …an unseasonably clouded sky sufficed to bring about the collapse of a World.” During the night from 17th to 18th June, it had not stopped raining heavily and the wet ground delayed the start of the battle until 11:30 a.m. These weather conditions gave the Prussian Army the time join Wellington's forces. The fight was horrible and at the close of the day, 47.000 dead and wounded were lying pell-mell in a 20 km² area... Wellington and Blücher had won and their enemy, Napoleon, helped by his Imperial Guard, had fled.
In Waterloo, Napoleon and Wellington gave their last fight before walking to their fate: the first would see his downfall and exile, the second an endless glory. But both became mythical, like the site and the name of the city itself.
Is it the unprecedented violence of the battle? The number of unidentified bodies, thrown pell-mell into mass graves? The fascinating personality of Napoleon? By 1815, the curious began to flock to the site, which soon became a place of pilgrimage and commemorations.
Inns, taverns and restaurants were built to welcome the tourists.
Waterloo is now a pleasant and flourishing little town with its shops and elegant neighborhood and past seems far away. However, when you will have the battle field at your feet, from the top of the Lion's Mound, you will certainly remember with emotion the thousands of men who lost their life on the tragic 18th June 1815.
Take the trouble to read the passages of “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo dedicated to the Battle of Waterloo, which, if not always of perfect historical accuracy, will plunge you with a shattering realism into the heart of the fight. And don’t miss his beautiful poem “Waterloo, bleak wilderness”, a masterpiece of French literature.
In many aspects, Waterloo was not just any battle but it played a significant role in History. This tragic fight was in fact the beginning of several decades of piece, after many years of conflicts all over Europe, the fall of Napoleon, genius and dictator and the end of the First French Empire.
So, next summer, before rushing to the Greek islands, their luxury villas and sandy beaches, why not being part of European History in Waterloo, on 18th June 2015?

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