Monument to the French soldiers - Tournai

This monument is located on the Place de Lille in Tournai and was erected for the French as a sign of national recognition of Belgium towards the soldiers of Marshal Gérard who fell under the walls of the citadel of Antwerp in 1832. The monument inaugurated in 1897 in the city of Tournai commemorates the first stop of the French army in Belgium.

The monument is a work of architect Constant Sonneville and sculptor Camille Delbert and consists of a stone plinth decorated with the coats of arms of the provinces, crowned with a bas-relief cast in the studio of the Brussels founder J. Petermann. It shows the exploits of French soldiers in bronze. On top of the bas-relief is a column of pink Scottish marble with a bronze figure symbolizing Belgium that commemorates

The siege of the Antwerp citadel took place from November 15 to December 23, 1832, after the Ten Days Campaign. He opposed the Dutch forces occupying Antwerp against the Army of the North, an expeditionary force sent through France during the Belgian Revolution and commanded by Marshal GERARD.

When the Dutch withdrew from Belgium after this short war called the Ten Days Campaign, they left a garrison in the citadel of Antwerp, which led to a second intervention by the Northern Army of Marshal GERARD, who returned with his army to Belgium. 1832, where he laid siege to Antwerp.

Willem Vandenameele