A vast circular colonnade of red brick rises beside the Ganzepoot, the fan-shaped junction of canals and locks where the IJzer meets the sea. An equestrian statue of King Albert I stands at the centre. The monument was completed in 1938 and is one of the most recognisable First World War memorials on the Belgian coast.
You can take a lift to a viewing platform 30 metres up, which gives a clear panorama over the locks, the harbour, and the polder country that was deliberately flooded in 1914. The lift is operated through the Westfront museum dug into the base of the monument, and admission to the museum includes the platform.