Brussels to build monument to victims of Covid-19 pandemic

The Brussels government has granted planning permission for the construction of a memorial commemorating the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The monument will be built in the north of Brussels, the city’s secretary of state for town planning and heritage Ans Persoons announced.

The place of remembrance is part of an overall project involving several memorial sites related to the pandemic.

Named “Onument”, the space will be constructed in the heart of Osseghem park, near the Atomium, as “a place of calm, in memory of the victims of the pandemic, but also of loved ones who left too soon”, Persoons said.

Other memorial sites across the country will be in Kortrijk, Leuven, Ghent, Lommel and Aarschot.

“These sites form a network of places of remembrance, discovery and encounter,” Persoons said.

Although each monument is different, they are all based on the same principle: a perfect circle, made up of curved elements of the same dimensions, interrupted by a natural force such as a watercourse, one or more trees or a difference in height.

The idea is to sketch a circle broken by a natural force whose composition shows how nature interferes with our lives.

The permit for Brussels indicates the installation of 13 equidistant benches, arranged in a circle, separated by the forest that surrounds each of the benches.

Access will be via a path from Avenue de la Passerelle.