Parc du Cinquantenaire

This guide to Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels starts with a park thrown up in mud and wood for Belgium's fiftieth birthday in 1880, and the stone triple arch that architect Gedeon Bordiau spent nearly two decades fighting to fund. It follows Parliament's refusal to pay for what it called Leopold the Second's vanity project, Bordiau's death in 1904 with the arch still unfinished, and King Leopold's decision to bring in a new architect and change the design. Then, astonishingly, private money with no committee attached appeared from somewhere. Listen for where the guide traces that money before you look up at the bronze chariot above.