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Mons
(Mons) Hainaut Rue Léopold II |
Monument en mémoire de J.-C. Houzeau de LehaieMonument for J.-C. Houzeau de LehaieJean-Charles Houzeau de LehaieHavré (Mons) 1820 - Bruxelles/Brussel 1880 Belgian astronomer and director of the Belgian Observatory in Uccle (Wikipedia) |
Charles Van Oemberg
1890 |
The monument consists of two parts, the pedestal and the column, together 7 meters high. The north-east face of the pedestal- in the axis of the main street - bears a white marble medallion with a portrait of Houzeau. Above the medallion were carved in stone a telescope and a divided ruler. Below, the inscription in golden letters indicates:
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On the south-west face, opposite the medallion, are the precise geographical coordinates of the monument:
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On the south-east side is a white marble plaque with a barometer and on the north-west side a large thermometer embedded in a white marble plate.
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On the pedestal stands a stone obelisk, with on the south-west face a sundial. The obelisk is crowned with an armillary sphere bearing the signs of zodiacal constellations. Inside the sphere, there is a globe with a tube as axis; through this tube the polar star can be observed during its passage below the meridian of Mons.
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The general conception was the work of a Montois industrialist, Charles Delnest, also councilor and generous patron of this project. He was assisted by Lancaster and Bijl, assistants of the Uccle Observatory for the whole technical section. The monument and the medallion representing Houzeau are due, in turn, to another Montois, the statuary Charles Van Oemberg, helped by Pette.
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