King Albert Park

KING ALBERT PARK:
Located on the southern border of Antwerp on relatively high ground, about 10 meters in an extensive wetland from which several streams branched off. In a deed from 1227, this plain was mentioned as “Papenmoer”, around the same time the leper house “Ter Zieken” was established on the site of the current event hall Harmonie, to the west of the Albertpark. In 1479, the city bought part of the papenmoer to establish a gallows field, which retained this function until 1703, the new gallows field was enclosed by three lanes just as it is now. After 1703 it turned into a wilderness. In 1754, the government intervened, transforming the gallows field into a place for walking, several avenues were laid out and the central area was given over to agriculture. Under French rule, in 1803, the old justice field of the city was reclaimed for the department and transformed into a plant garden (known as “Pépinière” or “Jardin Botanique”), closed to the public. The Pépinière was constructed as follows: in the middle of the triangle, there was a circle that was only sown with grass, around it, two larger circles were drawn successively, the last of which was inscribed in the three sides of the triangle, furthermore, two large straight avenues were drawn through those circles, one from the corner near the Harmonie to the center of the south side (Prins Albertlei in Berchem), the other from the so-called “Triangle” (intersection of Karel Ooms’ and Generaal Lemanstraat) to the center of the east side (Mechelsesteenweg), these avenues are still recognizable today, along with several smaller avenues, generating about forty plots. The avenue that led to the Warande, the so-called “Allee Herbouville” is the central part of the current Mechelsesteenweg. In 1809, the Warande was returned to the city and opened to the public in November 1861. In 1834, 1854, 1855, and 1862, work was done each time to transform the Warande and in 1868 the moat that bordered the Warandestraat, now Koningin Elizabethlei, was filled in. In 1875, a competition was announced for a thorough renovation, the plan for an English-style garden was approved and executed by E. Bruno, an architect and horticulturist from Paris in 1877-1878. Attention was paid to preserving as many trees as possible. The kiosk and gardener's warehouse by P. Dens date from 1876-1877. Since 1919, the Warande has been called “Koning Albertpark”. Kiosk from 1876-1877 by P. Dens. Octagonal building with a limestone base marked by polygonal corner pilasters, base and arch frieze with an upper structure consisting of an iron construction with floral-decorated columns and openworked ribs with leaf patterns under an octagonal roof with a decorated wooden gutter, acroteria, elaborately designed attic with ornamental vases and lyre as ridge decoration, the wooden interior cladding embellished with a stylized flower motif. Iron steep staircase and platform with railings made of intertwined branches (iron).

In the park are the following sculptures: a bronze group featuring a life-size black woman, palm trees, and a plaque with inscription and portrait honoring C. Coquilhat, signed J. de Lalaing, 1895, a bronze ballerina on a granite pedestal from 1959 by O. Jespers, a bronze statue of Camille Huysmans on a granite pedestal by sculptor I. Ianchelevici, unveiled in 1981.

Source: “Building Through the Ages in Flanders. City of Antwerp, the nineteenth-century urban expansion (3nc)”, Antwerp, 1989

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