The former home of infamous Belgian paedophile serial killer Marc Dutroux has officially been transformed into a memorial garden to commemorate his victims.
On Tuesday, the City of Charleroi officially presented the "Between Earth and Sky" memorial garden, laid out on the site of Dutroux’s former home in Marcinelle, nicknamed the "house of horror." The fathers of Julie Lejeune and Mélissa Russo, two of Dutroux's young victims, were present at the opening.
The garden, elevated from ground level, was designed by architects and landscape gardeners in consultation with the victims’ relatives. On a wall adjoining the new space, the designers added a "reinterpretation" of the child with his kite, the image as a trompe-l’oeil which could be seen on the façade of the building.
Through this project, the City of Charleroi wanted to erect a "place of remembrance for eternity" and transform a space where Dutroux held children such as Laetitia Delhez and Sabine Dardenne, who were released some 27 years ago. Later, the bodies of Julie and Mélissa were found, in mid-August 1996.
Credit: Belga/ Virginie Lefour
"It was extremely difficult to think of an appropriate project when faced with such a terrible tragedy," the city's mayor Paul Magnette said. "But this is a tragedy of sufficiently universal significance that it needs to be marked in this way."
The families of the victims had expressed the wish to keep the old house, but it was deteriorating and for the safety of locals had to be demolished. The cellars of the old house, where the children were locked up and in which Julie and Mélissa died, are nevertheless preserved.
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"The investigation file is based on a hypothesis that we’ve never believed in, the fact that Julie and Mélissa were able to live independently for four months in the cache. We think that one day we’ll have to go back into the cellars to find out the truth," Gino Russo, Mélissa’s father, said.
The memorial garden is not directly accessible to the public. However, members of the public can lay flowers in a small alcove built into the retaining wall. Dutroux, convicted in 2004, remains in prison.
