Egmont's statue

In 1814 the Zottegem city council started a campaign to erect a statue of Egmont on the central market square. In 1820 sculptor Jan-Robert Calloigne presented a plaster model of Egmont's statue at the Ghent Salon of the Royal Society of Fine Arts and Literature. In 1824 a plinth on the central square. In 18835 literary society De Suyghelingen van Polus organised a poetry contest about Egmont,[2] Winner Prudens van Duyse made a plea for an Egmont's statue. During the official opening of the newly built Egmont's crypt in 1857 Eugène Van Damme and Prudens van Duyse repeated their plea. The city of Zottegem bought the plaster model of the statue in 1862. In 1872 the statue was cast in wrought-iron by Edmond Zégut in the French Usines de Tusey. On 14 April 1872 the statue was inaugurated. The text on the plinth reads: Lamoraal Graaf van Egmont, Heere van Sottegem, Heere van Gavere, Gouverneur van Vlaanderen en van Artesië, overwinnaar te Sint-Quintin 1557 en te Grevelingen 1558, onthoofd te Brussel den 5 juni 1568.

In 1968 (400 years after the beheading of Lamoral) the city thought the statue was too corroded, so a new bronze statue was made by 'Compagnie des Bronzes d'Art' from Brussels.[3] On 9 June 1968 the statue was officially inaugurated.[4] The old wrought-iron statue turned out not to be in such a bad state as previously thought so it was transferred to the Egmont's park in front of Egmont's castle.

In the 1990s the Dutch town of Egmond aan den Hoef (cradle of the house of Egmont) got the idea of erecting a statue as well. In 1997 Dirk De Groeve from Hansbeke made a bronze copy of the statue in Zottegem. The statue was placed in the moat of Egmond Castle in Egmond aan den Hoef. It was inaugurated on 11 October 1997 by Josep Pons, the Spanish ambassador in the Netherlands. The text on the plinth reads: Lamoraal Graaf van Egmont 1522-1568, bedijker van de Egmondermeer 1565.

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  Calloigne's plaster model of the statue at the Ghent 'Salon' in 1820
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  Egmont's statue, market square, Zottegem (old photo)
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  Egmont's statue, market square, Zottegem (bronze)
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  Egmont's statue, Egmont's castle, Zottegem (wrought-iron)
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  Egmont's statue, Egmond Castle, Egmond aan den Hoef (bronze)
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  Information panel Egmont's statue, market square Zottegem
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  Information panel Egmont's statue, Egmont's castle Zottegem

On June 5, 2018, simultaneous commemoration ceremonies were held at the statues in Zottegem and Egmont aan den Hoef to remember the 450th anniversary of the beheading of Lamoral count of Egmont.[5][6]

• Lamarcq, D., Op een voetstuk geplaatst. Een standbeeld voor Lamoraal, graaf van Egmont. In: Zottegems Genootschap voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde. Handelingen XVIII (deel 1/deel 2) Themanummer Graaf Lamoraal van Egmont (1522-1586), 2017
• Lamarcq, D., Getouwtrek om een standbeeld online
• Belleman, H., Hof, J., Ranzijn, R., Het dubbele beeld van Lamoraal van Egmont, Egmond aan den Hoef, juni 1995. Archief Stichting Standbeeld Lamoraal van Egmont.
• Ranzijn, R., Jubileum standbeeld Lamoraal, Geestgronden, 17 (2010), nr. 1/2. online.
• Van Rode, O., 40 jaar geleden... Zottegem herdenkt de terechtstelling van Egmont, Handelingen XIV, 2009, Zottegems Genootschap voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde, pag. 123-240
• Toerisme Oost-Vlaanderen

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Egmont statue by Jan-Robert Calloigne.

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