Inspired by Trajan's Column in Rome, it was erected between 1850 and 1859, on the initiative of the then-Prime Minister of Belgium, Charles Rogier, according to a design by the architect Joseph Poelaert.

[5] Following Belgian independence in 1830, the desire to consolidate a still fragile identity led to a mania for monuments and a taste for national history.

The development plans for this formerly mostly working-class district, cleaned up between 1875 and 1885, attempted to free up the perspective of the column and organise the road network around it accordingly.

At the same time, the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar took charge of creating, below the square, a covered market which replaced some populous alleys or ill-famed dead-ends bordering the (now-disappeared) Rue des Cailles/Kwartelstraat.

[14] A spiral staircase of 193 steps inside the column leads to a platform, decorated with a lavishly carved balustrade, surrounding the pedestal of the 4.7-metre-tall (15 ft) statue of King Leopold I.

As a memorial to the Belgian victims of World War I, an unknown soldier was buried at the foot of the monument on 11 November 1922.

After World War II, a second memorial plaque was added to the monument to honour the Belgian victims.