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History
The monument was created in 1920 by the sculptor Pierre-Jean Braecke (a friend and collaborator of Victor Horta), as evidenced by Braecke's signature at the base of the statue.
It was inaugurated on August 15, 1920, to honor the memory of the victims of the First World War.
The names of three soldiers killed during the Second World War were added later. The monument underwent restoration in 2010.
Description
The monument is a commemorative stele made of Euville stone and bronze, approximately 4 meters high.
It consists of a stone base decorated with laurel wreaths and oak leaves, surmounted by a bronze statue of Victory.
The latter, wearing a helmet, brandishes a palm in her right hand and a sword in her left.
She wears the aegis, a breastplate adorned with the skin of the goat Amalthea, and a pendant depicting a shield adorned with the Gorgoneion (a representation of the head of a Gorgon, usually Medusa).
Inscriptions
The base is engraved in gold letters with a tribute to the victims of the First World War in Saint-Étienne.
"Honor and Fatherland
Court of Saint-Étienne
To her Children
Those Who Died for Belgium
1914 - 1918
1940"
The sides display the list of names of the victims, and the back displays the list of the deportees.
The bronze statue bears, on the left, Pierre Braecke's signature and the year 1920, and, at the bottom of the back, the inscription "Fonderie Nationale des Bronzes / J. Petermann / St Gilles Bruxelles.""