Victor Hugo Column

Waterloo ! Waterloo ! Waterloo ! Morne plaine !
Comme une onde qui bout dans une urne trop pleine,
Dans son cirque de bois, de coteaux, de vallons,
La pâle mort mêlait les sombres bataillons.

These first lines of (Les) Châtiments" were written by Victor Hugo. He lived in Waterloo from May to July 1861 in order to soak up the essence of the site and the poem was a huge success in 1870, after the end of the Second Empire. Thanks to Victor Hugo, literature has become the true resting place of France’s collective memory of the battle.

The Victor Hugo column is located near the French Wounded Eagle Monument, was inaugurated on 28 June 1904 and is dedicated the last soldiers of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. These French monuments are also close to La Belle Alliance farm, Napoleon's last command centre.