The mystery of the obelisk

Among the "ancient" obelisks (largely Egyptian) and the "modern" obelisks (consider those in Washington, Boston, Buenos Aires etc.), we have our very own "modern" obelisk in Belgium - located in the midst of the Domaine Régional Solvay in La Hulpe!
The unique and exceptional - if unsung - nature of this monument was reason enough to justify the restoration work carried out in April 2010 by the Wallonia Region (provider of the €46,000 funding).

Thanks to this renovation effort, the obelisk with its dazzling sun once again stands tall and proud, now more than ever keeping alive the mystery of how this amazing monument was created.

Features of the obelisk

The 36m high obelisk (including the sun) was commissioned by Mr Alfred Vandercam, a businessman from Ohain, based on Mr Ernest-John Solvay's concept.

The plans were designed by the architect Mr Harchies and consulting engineer Mr van Ham in Brussels.

Mr Solvay picked the sun from the different diameters made in Triplex safety glass presented to him. It was forged by the wrought iron craftsman, Mr Bonaventure of Lasne-Chapelle-Saint-Lambert. At a diameter of 4.5m and comprising 16 flames, it was specially tempered to withstand bad weather. This sun and the obelisk face west.


The construction that was started in 1968 lasted a year. The obelisk was finished in early 1969.

How the obelisk came to be built

The obelisk's construction was one of the last great amendments made to the park layout by Ernest-John Solvay in the last decade of his life. Pursuing the notion of creating a perspective, work was undertaken in the 1960s on the obelisk and the Belvedere, classics of the art of the 19th century garden.

Up until then, the woods came close to the château, encircling a narrow lawn. Several visitors, including King Leopold III suggested to Ernest-John Solvay that it would be wise to cut down some trees to create a view over the west. Major clearings were made on this side of the property and the whole ground was levelled for several metres. The long clearing to the obelisk (500m approx.) tapers from 30m wide to 20m wide at the last 300m, and here they dug out the ground as deep as 4m.

Mr Solvay wanted to see a monument at the end of the perspective he had created. This monument had to be a conclusion, a grand finale towering over the tallest trees on his estate. He chose an obelisk of precisely the same dimensions as the one in Place de la Concorde in Paris. Beginning in September 1965, the advertising division of Solvay & Co. in Paris took photographs and measurements. Mr Solvay was grateful for this gathering of information and offered a reward, as this letter dated 16th November 1965 attests: "In accordance with Mr Solvay's wishes and generosity, I am using today's margin to buy champagne for the 6 company staff who have worked on this exercise and who have happily complied with Mr Solvay's wishes. They will gladly drink to his health."

In the years after this survey, Ernest-John Solvay and his advisers fine-tuned the project. The outline of the La Hulpe obelisk project is found on a map drawn up by consulting engineer Albert-H van Ham on 19th January 1968. Construction proceeded, but Mr Solvay thought the completed obelisk too small (about 27m high). They built an additional formwork around the obelisk construction and filled in concrete. Therefore, in the end, the obelisk was higher than the one in Paris; it is 36m high.

According to Jacques Stasser (La Hulpe History Circle member), the work related to the obelisk remained unfinished, and it was halted when Ernest-John Solvay died on 17th October 1972. The lawn in front of the obelisk would have featured a pond to reflect the golden sun (confirms the author: "Of course, I say ‘would have', since the words were spoken by a guard in the 1970s, and I have no written evidence." Compare DH 27/05/2004-Jean-Philippe de Vogelaere).

The story goes that Ernest-John Solvay loved to see the sun come up. He lived on the east wing of the château and could experience this spectacle from his bedroom. However, at the end of his days, he wanted to sleep in the west. His sun fixed atop the obelisk was meant to cast the rays of the rising sun just for him. They also say that the sun could be a masonic symbol or could even symbolise soda. There is another sun over the Belvedere.
We are given one last account by Anne Solvay regarding the colour of the obelisk: "I remember my father taking me to see his finished obelisk. He said it was painted ‘Caterpillar' yellow!" (Interview by Jacques Vandenbroucke, July 2000).

Sources

- Correspondence and maps from the period.
- J. STASSER, "Le Château de La Hulpe et son parc", n.p.; n.d., 1977.
- J. VANDENBROUCKE (ed.) "A la découverte du Domaine Solvay", Ed. Luc Pire, 2000.
- "Un domaine entre forêt et village", an article by the La Hulpe History Circle.


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