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Photo: Funkyxian, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A command bunker part of the K-W Line (Koningshooikt - Wavre), built in 1939 to reinforce the existing defense line along the Albert canal and Meuse river, as an additional defense against a possible German invasion. Over 400 bunkers were built in 2 rows, with in front a line of anti tank obstacles and behind extensive telephone infrastructure to ensure communication with the front in case of an invasion. Interestingly, each bunker has a unique layout, strategically adapted to the location. They all feature the same elements, including firing slits for machine guns and openings for grenades. Since Command Bunker C40 was part of the communications infrastructure and not intended for battle, firing slits and grenade openings are absent here. It consists of an L-shaped construction of reinforced concrete with a small entrance. It can be visited by adventurous travellers with a flashlight. Most other bunkers along the line are in gardens of residential areas and have been repurposed as garden houses or animal shelters since they were too expensive to demolish. Only a few can be visited by the public.
The Koningshooikt–Wavre Line, abbreviated to KW Line and often known as the Dyle Line after the Dijle (Dyle) river, was a 60-kilometre-long (37 mi) fortified line of defence prepared by the Belgian Army between Koningshooikt and Wavre which was intended to protect Brussels from a possible German invasion. Construction on the KW Line began in September 1939 after World War II had begun but while Belgium itself remained a neutral state. It was subsequently extended southwards from Wavre towards Namur. The line itself consisted of bunkers, anti-tank ditches, and barricades including so-called Cointet-elements and played a key role in Allied strategy during the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940. However, its role in the actual fighting was ultimately minimal. In 2009 an inventory of surviving emplacements was begun.
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Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika
Housed in the former summer palace of the Belgian kings. It is a centre for knowledge and resources on Africa, in particular Central Africa, in an historical, contemporary, and global context. The museum exhibits unique collections. It is a place of memory on the colonial past.
Afrikaanse Olifant
Sculpture of an African elephant with raised trunk and three African warriors on its back, of which one is carrying a spear. It was designed by sculptor Albéric Collin and sponsored by Belgian chocolate manufacturer Côte d'Or which still has it in its logo. Intended for the World's Fair of 1935, it guarded the entrance of the Pavilion of Belgian Congo, a design from architect René Schoentjes, as a reference to the colonial past of Belgium. After the World's Fair, it was director of the Museum for Middle Africa, Frans Olbrechts, who lobbied to get the concrete statue to Tervuren in 1938. It was mounted on a sandstone socket in front of the museum's entrance, where it remains. The last restoration dates from 2005, when the statue was equipped with a protective coating and painted white.
Koloniënpaleis
Designed for the World's Fair of 1897 by French architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe and finished by Enrest Acker as part of an exposition to justify the Belgian occupation of Congo. King Leopold II ordered the construction of several Congolese villages in the Warande park, and imported Congolese citizens to populate them as a human zoo. The palace was built in this context as a prestigious landmark where the king could receive visitors. Aside from the royal suite, the palace featured a restaurant and exposition halls with ethnographic, military, geological and ichthyological material on display. The garden featured an extensive botanical greenhouse and furniture in Congolese timers, along with typical Congolese export products on display. After the World's Fair, the collection kept growing and gradually became a permanent exposition. In 1902 it became apparent that the collection no longer fit in the palace, and it was decided to move it to its current location in the palace of the king's former summer residence. The Palace of the Colonies remained largely vacant and in a state of disrepair until 1958, when the side wings were demolished and replaced by brick wings with a nearly identical volume, but better suited for their new purpose: laboratories for the Museum for Central Africa. The central wing of the Palace can be sited on request, the side wings occupied by laboratories can not.
Iconic fountain designed by Belgian sculptor Tom Frantzen in 2005. It depicts a group of African water animals, as if they have escaped from the nearby Museum for Middle Africa, playing in a jazz band in the centre of a rotunda. Frogs playing accordion, crocodiles playing contrabass and drum, and a hippopotamus playing tuba are a fun sight to watch, and the water gives a refreshing experience during hot summers. The concrete circles around the fountain were to have a waterlily like structure but to look like a gramophone disc. It is considered a typical work of Tom Frantzen, who is known for sculptures in bronze with a figurative undertone and a sense of humor resembling Jheronimus Bosch or Pieter Bruegel de Oude. The fountain is well integrated in its surroundings, making it one of the eye catches of modern Tervuren.
The planning of the Arboretum began in 1902 under the aegis of Charles Bommer, curator of the National Botanical Garden of Meise, and professor at the Free University of Brussels. It is in the Kapbos, a beech forest planted between 1875 and 1880 at the edge of the Sonian Forest. It covers an area of approximately 100 hectares and includes over 460 species of trees, of which are 305 broadleaved and 155 evergreen. The highest point Arboretum is 115 meters above sea level, one of the highest points in Flemish Brabant. With an average temperature of 10°C and 780 mm of precipitation per year, the Arboretum reflects the Belgian climate in every aspect, featuring the most typical tree species of temperate climate zones in the Northern Hemisphere.