Charleroi’s Place Charles II will now be called Place Vauban, following the approval by the City Council on Monday of a name change for the emblematic square, located opposite City Hall.
Before the vote, several local councillors referred to the misgivings expressed recently by two Charleroi historians.
In their view, the name change diminishes the reference to Charles II, the Spanish sovereign who “founded” Charleroi, since it was the Spanish who began the construction of the fortress that gave rise to the city in 1666.
In response to this criticism, Charleroi Mayor Paul Magnette cited a “political choice” behind the decision to name the square after the military architect Vauban, even though, according to the mayor, Vauban made only a “secondary contribution” to the building of the historic fortress after the departure of the Spanish.
Magnette described Vauban as one of the great personalities of the 17th century, “a great scholar, a critic of absolute monarchy and religious intolerance, a defender of the humble and the weakest.”
