Eben Emael tower

Ask someone what comes up in his mind when hearing the name of Eben Emael and most likely one will answer "Eben Emael, of course I've heard the story about the famous WWII fort that was thought to be invincible." Less known, but therefore not less interesting, is the building that was erected on the other side of town, called the Tower of Eben Ezer.
Both fort and tower are situated at the edge of Eben Emael, though totally different in function and ideology, originating from the same sources.
Read about the Eben-Ezer tower and the man and ideas behind it.
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Elsewhere on this website, in the article "The gliders of Eben Emael", you can read about the famous fort in this small Belgian village, some 10 miles South of the Dutch city of Maastricht. Once every month the museum at the fort and the fort itself both can be visited on Saturday and Sunday. For dates and times you'd best take a look at the Eben Emael fort website (available in English, French, German and Dutch language).
But if you intend to visit the fort we advise you (as a sort of counterweight) to also visit the (less famous) tower of Eben-Ezer, situated on the other side of the little Belgian town near the Dutch border.

It was 1925 when the first volume of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" ("My struggle") was published. In the same year, a 13 year old unknown Belgian citizen called Robert Garcet published a writing called "Son combat" ("His struggle"), which was a sort of an answer to Hitlers book. Garcet who was born in 1912 in the Wallon province of Hainaut, moved to Eben Emael (in the province of Liege) at the age of 18 to become a flintworkers apprentice and work in the flint mines near Eben Emael. After 7 years of hard labour Garcet had grown from apprentice to owner of the silex mine. The great war (1914-1918) already had had great impact on the life of some of his family members, the second worldwar would have an even greater impact on his life. In May 1940 the nearby fort of Eben Emael was occupied by the German Army and it wasn't until May 1945 that Belgium was to be free again.

During those five years of wartime Robert Garcet developed a plan in which he created a line of history, 7 meters long, which was deposited at a university library for future generations. In the same time Garcet was thinking of a larger plan, in which he wanted to construct a tower called "The new Jerusalem" and after the war in 1947 he made first drawings for his tower.
His visionary prediction: "One day violence will only be a nightmare"
Garcet's idea was to build his tower as an artistic monument of peace, demonstrating his vision that once upon a time in the future there will be an era where there will be no more war.

It wasn't until 1951 when Garcet and a group of comrades started construction works for his tower. Although the tower is planned to be made of silex dug out from the local quarry the first stone was made of granite. It was a stone that originated from one of the bridges along the Albert Canal that had been destroyed during the war. This way the granite stone symbolised the victory of good over evil, and the victory of peace over war.
In 1963 (16 years after the first plans) the construction of the tower finally was completed.

The design of Garcet's tower is full of mathematic symmetries, byblic numbers and symbolic measurements.
It is made of seven floors, each consisting of a large square of 12 x 12 m. and supported by 4 round pillar towers.
Each tower represents a different horseman of the Apocalypse. On top of each of the four side towers a more than man sized scuplture watches over the four diffent quarters of the compass rose.
Each scuplture represents a different cherub of the Apocalypse; a Bull, a Lion, an Eagle and a Sphix like man.
The 33 meter tower can be seen from several miles away and drawes special attention to the four scupltures on top of it.
All of it (except for the mentioned first stone and the scupltures on top) is made of local silex.
The basement actually is connected with 800 meter of hallways and caves of the sliex quarry and is a kind of museum, but not open to the public.

From the inside the visitor is overwhelmed on the first floor by the "Hall of the Cherubs", a square room, partly showing the archeological founds and scientific research Garcet conducted near the silex quarry, but mainly a room showing the (byblical) history of mankind. Its a kind of transcription of the allegoric ways of thought of the Prophets; the Cherubs in the middle back against back, the horsemen in the corners; in the northern corner the Beast, sign of human ignorance leaning against the Book of Wisdom, the Book of Wars against the western wall, the Candle painted on the wall of the rising sun. The Horsemen of the Apocalyps refer to the four horizons. The four Horsemen are firstly coloured in white, then in red, then black and lastly pale. Each of them appears in a different time of history. The white horsman represents King Cyrus (540 bC.), the red one King Alexander the Great (330 bC.), the black one the Roman Emperor Caesar August (30 bC.) and the pale one Emperor Constantine (326 aD.).

Garcet's construction works were finished in 1963. During those first years the tower was only accesible to Garcet's guests (among which several Hiroshima survivors) but since 1978 it has been open to the public, at first only seven times a year, but nowadays all year through during weekends and in the Summer almost every day.
Garcet died in 2001 at the age of 89.
His tower still exists to this day and is looked after by a non profit organisation.

Broken gun on top of the tower, symbolising "No more war"

Each year at solstice at the top floor a banner is put up with the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

"and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" .

Visitor info on Eben Ezer:

Even for a no-nonsense non-churchgoing-person like your webmaster the tower of Eben Ezer is worth a visit if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Opening hours:
Summer (April 1st - October 31st)
on weekdays from 13.30 until 18.00
Saturday and Sunday from 13.30 until 19.00

Winter (November 1st - March 31st)
on weekdays only an appointment (by telephone 48hrs in advance)
Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 13.30 until 18.00

Silex Museum / Tower of Eben-Ezer
Eben Emael
GPS coordinates: N 50º 46.575 E 005º 38.975
(Follow the sign "Eben-Ezer" from the main road near the church, the tower is situated at a dead end street)
Tel.: +32 (0) 4 286 92 79

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