The stone obelisk from Verlée, a surprise near Havelange

An internet search only adds

The stone obelisk near Verlée a mystery next to Havelange About an hour and a quarter by car to the southeast of Brussels is the small village of Verlée. This village, composed mainly of a few limestone farmhouses, has no particular attraction and seems at first glance a commonplace and without particularities. However, going from here to Petit Avin, on the road that leaves the village, those who pass through this area are surprised to find, in the middle of the open ground, a stone obelisk set on a hill near the road.

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An internet search only adds to the confusion: no site provides a convincing explanation for the origin of this monument, which many have called the singura pyramid of Belgium . This designation, however, is based on a misinterpretation. It is sometimes claimed that the obelisk was a topographic reference point used by French colonel Jean-Joseph Tranchot to make a triangular survey of the Rhine region and a small portion of northern Belgium between 1801 and 1813. Although the logical idea that the monument is well visible in the area of the Deal, other similar obelisks and the period corresponding to the decree are sometimes claimed. These axes were used by the French colonel Jean-Joseph Tranchot to make a triangular survey of the region and a small portion of northern Belgium between 1801 and 1813.

This positioning is not a coincidence

This positioning is not a coincidence. The monument marks, in fact, the end of the axis of a castle a design element known in historical arrangements. Similar solutions are found elsewhere: at La Hulpe Castle in Belgium, Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands), Château de Vaux-Le-Vicomte in France, and Wilhelmshöhe Castle in Germany. All these examples originate essentially from the model of the Palace of Versailles, where the axis extends eastwards for over eight hundred metres, symbolizing the king's power extending throughout the empire. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Versailles became a landmark for the whole of Europe, and this axis of France was transformed into a central point in architecture, and the idea of building a monument was that the axis of the castle would make it impossible to build a building or a building.

The obelisk in Verlée is therefore a clear testament to the way in which some information is repeated on the Internet without being verified. The label The only pyramid in Belgium does not reflect any funerary structure or religion, but simply a decorative element of the gardens of a castle that no longer exists. The monument is not a pyramid in the traditional sense, but an obelisk that served as the seal of the axis of a lost aristocratic domain.