Equestrian Statue Albert I - Bruges

The equestrian statue of King Albert I is set up in the King Albert I Park .

The erection of an equestrian statue for King Albert was quite difficult . Its difficult construction is related to the erection of other war memorials in the city.

On October 23, 1927, a memorial to the Bruges dead was inaugurated in the Karthuizerinnenstraat, known as the military chapel. However, the 'Brugsch Verbond der Vaderlandsche Vereenigingen', which was founded on 7 March 1927 and consisted of important veterans' associations, could not agree with this memorial .

In 1929-1930 a memorial arch was erected at the end of Karthuizerinnenstraat at the initiative of the mayor and aldermen, in order to give the whole a more public character.

For years the 'Verbond' would continue to work for a second urban war memorial , but according to the city council this was impossible. The route for erecting an equestrian statue to King Albert seemed acceptable to the city council.

When the new King Leopold , after Albert's death, announced that it was desirable – in addition to the Yser Memorial in Nieuwpoort and the unspoilt landscape of Marche-les-Dames – that only one national memorial to his father should be erected in Brussels in the form of a library, great confusion arose in Bruges . In 1938 the city council nevertheless decided to erect an equestrian statue to King Albert on the 'Statieplaats' (present-day Zand), as a memorial to the liberation.

The Second World War would interrupt the arduous process for years. It was not until 1951 that the project of a statue to King Albert was revived. The memorial would not be placed on the Zand, but in the park along the Koning Albert I-laan .

The memorial was unveiled on May 30, 1954 , in the presence of King Baudouin

Willem Vandenameele