Waterloo's place in history was secured on June 18, 1815, when it bore witness to Napoleon's final military defeat and the end to French imperialist expansion in Europe. The tourist attractions of modern Waterloo all concentrate on that fateful battle. The Butte du Lion, a hill manufactured by piling up battlefield soil, is topped by a gigantic cast-iron lion, and commands an excellent view. At the base of the Butte is a Visitor Center, a wax museum, and the Grand Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo, an enormous rotunda painting 110m across. Elsewhere are the Wellington Museum, in the house where the British commander the Duke of Wellington had his headquarters; several farmhouses that served as strategic objectives; the Caillou Provincial Museum, housed in Napoleon's headquarters; and St. Joseph's Church, which contains memorial engravings of French and British soldiers who fell.
