HISTORY, it is said, is written by the victors. But not, it seems, when the victor is Britain and the vanquished is France.

A French museum company is to develop a major historical interpretation centre at the battlefield of Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington and his allies put an end to Napoleon’s attempts to create a European empire.

The £20 million project was unveiled yesterday by the Parisian firm Culture Espaces, which hopes that Waterloo, about 15 miles south of Brussels, will become one of the most popular historical sites in Europe, attracting half a million tourists a year. The plans, which have been agreed by the government of the southern Belgian region of Walloon, involve knocking down the present visitors’ centre, which was funded by the British Government, and replacing it with a huge new underground visitors’ complex.

The British Embassy in Brussels admitted yesterday that it did not know about the plans for the site of the British Army’s most famous victory.

Stephen Drake-Jones, of the Wellington Society, who has been conducting tours of the battlefield since 1973, said: “It had better be balanced. I am always concerned about something like this. Napoleon still has a tremendous following, in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.”

Most non-British tourists are more interested in Napoleon than Wellington, and Mr Drake-Jones said the result was that around Waterloo “it’s all very pro-Napoleon everywhere — 90 per cent of the trinkets and busts are of Napoleon, and hardly anything of Wellington, which is unique in defeat”. In the Battle of Waterloo, on June 18, 1815, a quarter of a million soldiers from Britain, France, Prussia and the Netherlands fought for 12 hours, leaving 16,000 dead, 50,000 injured, and the course of European history altered for ever. However, the battlefield today is remarkably unimpressive, dominated by a pyramid mounted by a lion made from the metal of French cannons marking where the Dutch Prince of Orange was injured. When the Duke of Wellington returned to the battlefield and saw the mound he complained: “They’ve ruined my battlefield.”

Major-General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, and chairman of the Waterloo Committee, which has been trying to get the site upgraded, said he was delighted that something was being done. But on learning that it was to be run by a French museum company, he said: “There’s always a concern that it could purport to be a Napoleonic victory.”

The new underground complex will involve many high-tech visual displays, with recreation of the battle, interpretation of European history and tales of the lives of soldiers and the craftsmen who supported them.

Bruno Monnier, chairman of Culture Espaces, insisted that it would not be a Napoleonic theme park: “I am not a member of the association of Napoleon defenders. People who are interested in Napoleon will come, but it was clearly a defeat for Napoleon and the end of his empire.”

Serge Kubla, the mayor of Waterloo, said that the contract to develop the site went to the French company after a British group pulled out.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks