HEART SHADOW CREATED IN COUPLE MAUSOLEUM SYMBOLIZES ETERNAL BOND

The mausoleum of Léonce Evrard and his wife, Louise Flignot, is a wonderful example of the belief held by many that real love endures beyond death. The neoclassical chapel, built in 1920 at the entrance to Laeken Cemetery in Brussels and designed by architect George de Larabrie, has a moving sculpture of a mourner reaching out in grief. Sunlight enters the chapel once a year, at the summer solstice, and forms a heart shape exactly where the mourner's hand reaches.

Evrard and Flignot, both from France, settled in Laeken in 1891. Evrard, a master marble artisan, was devastated when Flignot died in 1916 and channelled his sorrow into building the unique monument in her honour. He commissioned the hexagonal chapel's design from architect George de Larabrie and collaborated with sculptor Pierre Theunis to produce the powerful image of a distraught woman.

Three years after his wife's death, Evrard passed away as well, and the two were buried together in the church that now serves as a testament to their tale. The poignant, brief moment that occurs every year when the sun shines through a hole in the ceiling and creates a heart-shaped light on the wall above the mourner's hand exquisitely depicts the enduring connection between two souls.