National Shooting Range


The National Shooting Range was a firing range and military training complex of situated in the municipality of Schaerbeek in Brussels, Belgium. Opened in 1889, it was intended as a place where the Garde Civique and the army could conduct shooting drills. During both world wars, the site was under the control of the occupying German forces and was used for the executions of civilians, prisoners and captured members of the Belgian Resistance. It was demolished in 1963, with the site now occupied by a media complex.

History

The idea of a national shooting range dates back to the Belgian Revolution of 1830. The first range was started in 1859 by then-Prime Minister Charles Rogier, and mayor of Schaerbeek, Eugene Dailly, at the Prince Baudouin barracks on the Place Dailly/Daillyplein. This first range was abandoned in 1886 by the Government of Belgium|Government] due to obsolescence. Modernisation of weapons meant that longer ranges were required.

The Shooting Commission decided to build a larger venue to permit military units garrisoned in Brussels and private individuals to practise over longer distances. In 1886, work was begun on a plateau at Linthout on the modern Boulevard Auguste Reyers/Auguste Reyerslaan. The centre opened in 1889. The building included a indoor range which was used by members of the Garde Civique until 1920 and the army until 1945. In 1963, the centre was demolished. The site is now occupied by a media complex for the Belgian public broadcasters RTBF and VRT.
The centre had become a focus of Belgian patriotism; it was occupied and used for executions by the invading military forces of the German Empire during World War I, and again by those of Nazi Germany during World War II. In both world wars, prisoners held at Saint-Gilles Prison, both civilians and captured members of the Belgian Resistance, were taken to the National Shooting Range to be executed. Amongst those executed at the site were the English nurse Edith Cavell and Gabrielle Petit. The only remaining building is dedicated to Edith Cavell. There is a small cemetery, close to the present television centre, known as the Enclosure of the executed. There are 365 tombs, and a pillar among the graves marks the location of the urn containing the remains of victims of the concentration camps in 1940–1945.

People executed

World War I