Just south of Brussels lies one of the most pivotal sites in European history: the Battlefield of Waterloo where Napoleon met his final defeat. If you’re a fan of history, military strategy, or just enjoy immersive museums, the Waterloo Battlefield Museum and other sites at the Memorial of the Battle of Waterloo 1815 offers an experience that’s as educational as it is emotionally powerful.
This post covers the main Waterloo Battlefield Museum complex, the 360° Panorama, the iconic Lion’s Mound, and a few surprises—including a LEGO Napoleon.
Getting Started With Your Visit to the Waterloo Battlefield Museum
Domaine de la Bataille de Waterloo
Rte du Lion 1815, 1420 Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium (a quick day trip from Brussels)
There’s convenient parking onsite, close to the two battlefield restaurants—Le Bivouac de l’Empereur and Brasserie Wellington—and the statue of Napoleon, marking the entrance.
At the ticket counter in the lobby, you’ll choose your level of access. We opted for the 1815 Pass, which allows one-time entry to all major battlefield sites and is valid for a full year from purchase. For €30 per adult, it included:
- The Memorial Museum
- The Lion’s Mound
- The Panorama
- The special LEGO Napoleon exhibit
- Hougoumont Farm
- The Wellington Museum – off site but worth a visit! Read: The Wellington Museum in Waterloo: The Duke’s Headquarters Before Battle
- Napoleon’s Last Headquarters – off site but worth a visit! Read: Inside Napoleon’s Last Headquarters: Visiting the Caillou Farm in Waterloo
It was well worth the price, and let us explore everything at our own pace.
🚨 Just remember to bring your ticket with you if you stretch your visit over a few days. We forgot it once and paid double for Napoleon’s HQ!
The Waterloo Memorial Museum: Step Underground into Another Age
Allow about 2 hours (including a 15-minute film)
Start your visit at the main Memorial Museum, housed in a modern, underground complex. The first thing you’ll encounter is an enormous diorama, created over a 30-year period by a single artist, featuring more than 10,000 miniature soldiers mid-battle. It’s a remarkable capture of one of history’s bloodiest battles.
The museum unfolds chronologically and thematically, and it begins with a fascinating display of the Enlightenment and some of its most important thinkers. Then you’ll learn about the fascinating figures close to Napoleon, and some of his non-military achievements which might surprise you, like implementing a unified legal code, education reform, and the creation of the economically stabilizing Bank of France.
A long, light-filled hallway showcases a huge variety of uniforms from all nations involved – highly detailed with gold braid, feathers, epaulettes, and shiny buttons. It’s unbelievable when you look at them to think these ornate garments were worn in the mud, blood, and chaos of combat.
Other highlights include:
- Historic weapons and artillery
- A recreation of Napoleon conferring with his men before battle
- Satirical maps of Europe from the Napoleonic era
- A wonderfully informative 3D movie that places you on the battlefield
- Personal grooming kits and officer effects from soldiers on both sides
- A tribute to the thousands of horses that died in the battle
- Artifacts collected by a Waterloo veteran who once ran a private museum on the site
But one of the most haunting displays is the skeletal remains of a Prussian soldier, discovered only in July 2022—one of just two human skeletons ever recovered from the battlefield. (I’ll be diving into the surprising reason for that in an upcoming post.)
The Panorama: 360° of Immersive History
Allow 15-20 minutes
Adjacent to the museum sits a massive white rotunda housing the Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo. This 110-meter-long oil painting by Louis Dumoulin was completed in 1912 and stitches together 14 canvas panels into a single, cylindrical battlefield view. If you’re drawn to storytelling through art, or just curious what immersive history looked like a century before museum apps and augmented reality, don’t skip this.
Natural light floods in from above, and viewers ascend stairs to reach a central viewing platform. In the early 20th century, panoramas were cutting-edge immersive media, and imagining its impact on visitors of that time gave me a deeper appreciation.
Around the base of the painting are 3D props—a dead horse, carts and stones, and plaster soldiers, designed to blur the line between the real and painted worlds. There are normally sound effects too but when we were there, they were in the middle of a restoration project so we watched in silence.
While it may only take 10-20 minutes to explore, it’s a powerful and rare artistic artifact. Most other panoramas of the era (including two other Waterloo panoramas) have been lost. So enjoy the artwork itself, but also appreciate that you’re in the virtual reality of the early 20th century!
The painting itself is quite captivating and it shows with great emotion and energy charges from the French, the better-late-than-never arrival of the Prussians, and several other key moments in the battle that happened at approximately 6pm on the evening of June 18, 1815.
Climbing the Lion’s Mound on the Waterloo Battlefield
Allow 25-30 minutes
From the museum, you’re drawn immediately to the Lion’s Mound, a towering, man-made grass-covered hill built between 1823 and 1826 by order of King William I of the Netherlands. It marks a very particular place on the battlefield, but that place was not where I was expecting. Apparently, it memorializes the spot where the eldest son of the King, the Prince of Orange, was hit by a musket ball to his shoulder and fell off his horse. That detail stopped me in my tracks.
Tens of thousands of soldiers from across Europe were killed or badly maimed here, men who never made it home, and died miserable deaths in the mud, and yet this giant monument, that took so much soil from the surroundings that it reshaped the very terrain of the famous battle, was raised to honor one young royal’s shoulder injury?
I wasn’t the only one who found this hard to swallow. The engineer Jean-Baptiste Vifquain, tasked with the construction, made certain to say that the mound was meant as a symbol of Allied victory, not just a memorial to a single injury of a single man.
But the controversy didn’t stop there. Famous French author, Victor Hugo, in his novel Les Misérables, noted that the victorious Duke of Wellington who had routed Napoleon, criticized the mound for completely changing the terrain of the battlefield and obscuring history. “They have altered my field of battle!” Hugo reports him lamenting.
Regardless of its controversial beginnings, climbing the 226 steps is a cardio challenge and sort of a rite of passage, and the 360° view from the summit is your reward. We went on a nice balmy day and took it slowly, but I’m not sure we’d have been as eager to climb if it had been a really hot day. This might be a good activity for the morning if the forecast calls for it.
The landscape below is still mostly green and rural, and you can easily spot locations like the Panorama rotunda, the Hougoumont Farm and La Haye Sainte in the distance. At the top stands the enormous cast-iron lion, symbolizing Allied courage and victory.
Despite its controversial creation, the Lion’s Mound is now the most recognizable symbol of the site and a must-do during your visit. Even if you don’t climb it, your museum ticket will allow you to get to the best photo locations of the mound itself from the base.
The Life and Times of LEGO Napoleon (Special Exhibit)
Allow about 20-40 minutes
Back inside the museum is something we almost missed, and frankly, that I had doubts about: the LEGO Napoleon exhibit which is scheduled to be there until January of 2026.
Turns out, it’s a detailed, clever visual biography, from his youth to his coronation to the Egyptian campaign, the Russian disaster, and his ultimate exile to St. Helena, and burial at Les Invalides in Paris. There’s even a LEGO version of his famous bicorn hat.
It’s quirky, but a great way to engage younger visitors, or just offer a change of pace if you want something lighter than the somber battlefield memorials.
The Museum often has special exhibits, reenactments, and activities. Check the Domaine de la Bataille de Waterloo website for dates.
The Waterloo Battlefield Gift Shop: Take My Money!
If you like gift shops, allow 20-30 minutes
I used to own a museum-inspired gift store so I’m really picky, and I’m here to say – don’t skip the gift shop! It has more than just the usual tourist fare. Sure, there are Napoleon rubber ducks, but also:
- Elegant glassware with Napoleon’s bee symbol
- Perfumes and colognes
- Fun garments and wooden swords for kids
- High quality collectible metal soldiers
- Scarves, embroidered bags, and tasteful mementos
- A strong selection of books (in multiple languages) on the Napoleonic era
Where to Eat at the Waterloo Battlefield
Hungry? We had lunch at The Brasserie Wellington which is a brewery style restaurant with a full view of the battlefield. The service was excellent, and the food surprisingly good. A perfect spot to reflect on the gravity of what happened there. (Allow an hour or more). If you want something a little more refined and elaborate, try The Emperor’s Bivouac which is right next door.
Visitor Information for the Waterloo Battlefield
Everything covered in this post: the Waterloo Battlefield Museum (Mémorial Waterloo 1815), the Panorama, the Lion’s Mound (Butte du Lion), and the parking area are all very close together and easy walking distance to one another.
Here’s what to punch in to your GPS:
Domaine de la Bataille de Waterloo
Rte du Lion 1815, 1420 Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium
♿ Accessibility: The Panorama and the Museum have elevators
✨ Special Activities and Exhibits: Check the Domaine de la Bataille de Waterloo official website for information
🏡 The Huguomont Farm is also part of the complex, although a bit farther away. We’ll cover this in another post.
🗓️ Opening hours: The Waterloo Battlefield is open every day with varying hours depending on the season.
🎧 Audioguide: An audioguide is available in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and several other languages.
Prepare for Your Visit to the Waterloo Battlefield Museum!
If you’re a military history junkie, or just like to get the absolute most out of once-in-a-lifetime chances to visit significant historical sites, here are some highly reviewed books and films that will add to your experience!
📚 Books
- Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell
A gripping, narrative-driven history from the author of the Sharpe novels – accessible and meticulously researched. - 1815: The Battle for Modern Europe by Jeremy Black
A concise but analytical take by a respected historian that puts Waterloo in a broader geopolitical context. - Waterloo: The Aftermath by Paul O’Keeffe
Less about the battle itself, but more about the incredible changes that came afterwards – unusual, poignant, and well-regarded.
🎬 Films & Documentaries
- Waterloo (1970)
A classic cinematic epic with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer—old-school filmmaking with massive battle scenes. - Napoleon (2002, French miniseries)
An award-winning, detailed series starring Christian Clavier. Dense but rewarding (available dubbed/subtitled). - Waterloo’s Warriors (BBC documentary)
Focuses on the personal stories of soldiers in the battle, giving emotional context to the event.
There’s also, of course the 2023 movie Napoleon directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Joaquin Phoenix.
This is more of a moody psychological character study than a historically accurate battle film by far, but it does feature a stylized take on Waterloo. They definitely played fast and loose with accuracy, but I couldn’t not mention it!
Final Thoughts on the Waterloo Battle Site
Standing atop the Lion’s Mound, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of history — the glory, the grief, and the complex legacy left behind by those who fought here. For some, like King William, the site was a personal monument. For others, it became a symbol of national pride, or even resentment. But for many of us, it’s a place to reflect on the scale of ambition, sacrifice, and consequence.
As Napoleon once said:
“Men of genius are as meteors, destined to burn themselves out to light up their age.”
At Waterloo, you have the rare opportunity to learn about that fire as you stand in its ashes.