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A frontal view of the monument

The John Cockerill Monument is a monumental statuary group in an eclectic style on Place du Luxembourg in Brussels, in front of Brussels-Luxembourg station, erected in memory of the Anglo-Belgian industrialist John Cockerill, a pioneer of the steel and railway industries in 19th-century Belgium.

Location

The statue stands in the middle of the Place du Luxembourg, a square in Brussels, with its back to the old Brussels-Luxembourg station building, built in an eclectic style in 1854-1855 by the architect Gustave Saintenoy, and to the postmodern buildings of Espace Léopold, the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels.

History

Unveiled in 1872, the monument is a second version of one created in 1871 by the sculptor Armand Cattier (1830-1892) in Seraing, in the middle of Cockerill's industrial empire. The production of the memorial, authorized by the sculptor, was paid by Willem Rau, a Cockerill collaborator. The reason why this second version of Seraing's memorial was built in front of Brussels-Luxembourg train station is probably because it is one of the first stations in Brussels and Cockerill's workshops provided the first rails, railway wagons and locomotives in Belgium.

Description

The monument consists of a high bronze statue of John Cockerill on a pedestal made of blue stone in a rectangular form. The industrialist appears to support himself on an anvil.

The pedestal is decorated with a bay leaf garland and is ornamented with medallions that might once have contained bronze effigies of four of Cockerill's principal collaborators, the names of several of whom – Rau, Pastor, Poncelet, Memmenger, Alexander, Wéry and Brialmont – are still inscribed on the pedestal.

The corners of the pedestal are decorated with four workers: Lognoul the blacksmith, Beaufort the mechanic, Lejeune the puddler, and Jaquemin the coal miner. But here, unlike in the Seraing group, the workers are shown sitting and their statues, made by the Compagnie des Bronzes de Bruxelles, are bronze rather than iron.

The front of the pedestal bears the inscription À John Cockerill, le père des ouvriers ("To John Cockerill, the father of workers"). The right side of the pedestal bears the word "Intelligence", and the left side "Travail" (Labour). Cockerill's birth and death dates (1790-1840) are inscribed on the back.