Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery - Hasselt, Belgium - Antarctic Points of Interest on Waymarking.com

"Statue of Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery, founded in 1998 in Hasselt, by artist Gerard Moonen.

Presentation
The monument, more than three meters high, depicts a man with a mustache and a captain's cap with naval emblem. He is shrouded in a fur-collared coat and peers into the distance. The bronze statue represents Baron Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery. The Gerlaches name is inextricably linked to the history of exploration of the Antarctic. In 1897, not a Brit, an American or a Swede, but the Belgian de Gerlache led the first scientific expedition to the unfathomable interior of Antarctica. His expedition ship, the Belgica, was the first to winter there. In this way, Belgium assured itself of a place among the great seafaring nations.


The bronze stands on a pedestal, made of piled up pieces of bluestone that evoke the image of ice floes, a surging sea, or more symbolically, of a 'shaky enterprise'.[1] Including the pedestal, the statue is four meters high. At the feet of the statue a bronze plate has been placed in the bottom. This gives the spectators some personal data.


History
The image was created on the occasion of the centenary of the - out of necessity - wintering of the Gerlaches expedition ship, at 70 degrees south latitude, in the pack ice of the Antarctic continent. Artist Gerard Moonen is himself a Hasselaar and has already created a few statues in Hasselt's public space. Funds were provided by Bigg's Continent Noord director Eric Lejeune, among others. The unveiling ceremony took place on March 1, 1998. Gaston de Gerlache de Gomery, son of Adrien and a polar explorer himself, attended the unveiling.


It may be called somewhat surprising that the adventurous polar explorer was only honored with a statue so late. Shortly after his return, De Gerlache had been proclaimed a Belgian hero. After all, the resounding success of his expedition was also a political victory: the fact that Belgium, a vulnerable and young nation under construction, without a trade or state fleet, was the first explorer of the Antarctic continent, gave it the right to base itself henceforth alongside the great seafaring nations. to place.

Location
The statue is located in Guffenslaan in Hasselt, opposite the street that has been bearing the polar explorer's name for a long time, and diagonally opposite the house in Guffenslaan where he was born in 1866."
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Type of Waymark: Off Continent Point of Interest

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