During World Wars I and II the site was used for the executions of civilians, prisoners and captured members of the Belgian Resistance.

The first range was started in 1859 by then-Prime Minister Charles Rogier, and mayor of Schaerbeek, Eugene Dailly, at the Prince Baudouin barracks on the Place Dailly/Daillyplein.

Amongst those executed at the site were the English nurse Edith Cavell (on 12 October 1915) and Gabrielle Petit (on 1 April 1916).

There is a small cemetery, close to the present television centre, known as the Enclos des fusillés ("Enclosure of the executed").

There are 365 tombs, and a pillar among the graves marks the location of the urn containing the remains of victims of the concentration camps in 1940–1945.