War Memorial Zele

War memorial at Zele to commemorate the military and the civilian victims of the First and the SecIond World War.

It was initially erected in memory of the victims of the First World War, made by the Zele-born sculptor Aloïs De Beule and festively inaugurated on July 15, 1923.

On a lawn at the station is a granite pedestal with the inscription "TO OUR HEROES/ 1914/ 1918" on the front.
In the center is a life-size bronze statue of the Virgin of Peace with a laurel wreath and the sword of victory in the left hand and an olive branch, symbol of peace, in the right hand.
Below this is the municipal coat of arms and a bronze relief depicting the municipality of Zele, flanked on both sides by marble panels with the names of fallen soldiers.
At the pedestal a beautiful figurative bronze statue of a dying soldier.

Back "TO OUR/ MARTYRS" above the lists of names of the civilian victims (shot and requisitioned).
In the center is a bronze relief that symbolizes the hard labor and suffering of those claimed; signed at the bottom "A.D.Beule".

In 1948 the monument was enlarged laterally by the addition of two bluestone panels with the names of civilian and military victims of the Second World War with a bronze tied laurel wreath on the corner.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc van Waeyenberge (1, 2, 3), Marie-Christine Vinck (4, 5)