Little known grids: Kamp Beverlo

Between 1831 and 1839 a truce was declared between Belgium and the Netherlands. After the southern part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands had declared its independence in 1830, king William I refused to recognize the fledgling state of Belgium. This partly because of his stubbornness and partly because he felt outraged by the Belgians for asking Leopold Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Hertzog of Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) to be their new monarch. The independence of Belgium was settled in the Treaty of London in 1839. The border issues remained from the moment the border was marked out by boundary-posts in 1843, until the final border treaty was signed in 1999. The border conflicts were mainly administrative in nature.

The accommodation for the soldiers on maneuvers, the straw huts that housed 24 and housing provided for the permanent military staff were in great contrast. One of these straw huts has been reconstructed on site.

From 1832 small encampments are raised along the provisionary border of the Belgian state to ward off any military intervention from the north. They prove very costly and hardly effective, so Leopold King of the Belgians starts planning a single large camp near the border where infantry, cavalry and artillery can jointly exercise. In 1834 he surveys a vast and desolate heath (the Grote Heide van Beverlo) and decides, stood there, that this is the spot for building his large military encampment. The land is very cheap, the area is sparsely populated and there is an abundant supply of fresh drinking water because of several small brooks. At the beginning of 1835 the National Assembly approves the creation of the Beverlo Military Camp (le Camp de Beverlo). In less than four months 400 barracks are transported there from Diest, over one thousand tents are raised and hundreds of straw huts are built. In August the camp is ready and over 20.000 soldiers are brought in for the first large scale military exercise.

The layout of the Beverlo Military Camp is a regular grid projected on the former heath. It closely follows the roman layout of a military camp (castrum). The grid is measured along an east-west axis (the Via Principalis, the present Hechtelsesteenweg) and a north-south axis (the Via Prætoria, the present Gravin van Vlaanderenlaan).The first grid was measured out as 7x7 cells. This grid was later extended around the edges. These extensions don't follow the original grid by default.

To house all this military personnel a grid was marked out on the flat heathland. The tradition of basing military encampments on grid layouts is very ancient and of course best known from the Romans. In Kamp Beverlo a similar approach was chosen. A geodetic point was marked out from which all the measurements were taken. It is now situated in the Royal Park (Koninklijk Park) that was planted in 1845 around the wooden palace built in 1835. The palace took the shape of a large bungalow style building with neoclassical columns and tympana. Together with the pavilions for the Minister of War and the General Staff (also built in wood and straw) this royal palace formed the centre of the camp. In 1886 the pavilions were replaced with buildings in brick with slate roofs. In 1913 the wooden palace was torn down to make way for a new brick and stone-built structure. It was never built due to the onset of the great War. The palace once stood south of the crossing point of the two main axis of the camp. After 1850 the military camp was greatly expanded. Between 1845 and 1848 work had started on providing for the planned capacity of 40.000 soldiers and 4.000 horses. A military hospital was built along with schools, a slaughterhouse, a laundry and a bakery. In the military camp two streets dissect the grid to form a birds foot motif focused on the royal palace. This is a very formal expression of power derived from baroque garden design. Across from the royal palace a large parade ground was leveled. It serves as the central square of the military camp. The camp had its own railway station. The camp was once linked to the railway with narrow-gauge tracks running through Kamp Beverlo. Now broken up, parts of the track can still be seen.

The royal palace made for a secondary spatial motif superimposed on this grid making it very recognizable as the Kamp Beverlo. This royal encampment had a royal palace (R) at its heart that was the focus of a formal fan of 5 streets. Of this fan 3 streets are still recognizable as a birds foot motif. Next to the palace the pavilion of the Minister of War (M) stood with the pavilion of the General Staffs (S). On the edges of the royal park (K) a pavilion (P) was built for the Cavalry officers. On the other edge the pavilion for the Commander of the Royal Engineers (C) was erected. South of the royal park the new park (N) was planted. On one of the axis another pavilion was built. Opposite the Tacambaro Monument was erected. After the Great War an honorary military cemetery (E - erebegraafplaats) was made on the outer gridline of the grid. On the main axis of the royal palace the large statue honouring Chaval (C) was erected. It marks the edge of the Zegeplaats (Z -Victory Place) in front of the royal park.