BIE-class Universal exposition Countries 31 | Category Historical Expo | |
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Name Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Gand 1913 Building Gent-Sint-Pieters railway station Area 130 hectares (320 acres) | ||
The Exposition universelle et internationale of 1913 was a World's Fair held in Ghent from 6 April to 31 October.
History
In the last of such type of human zoo stagings, part of a group of 53 Igorot tribesmen from Bontoc, Mountain Province, 28-year-old Filipino Timicheg was "displayed" and died here of tuberculosis or flu. A tunnel in the Gent-Sint-Pieters railway station renovation project is named after him.
A number of buildings were completed for the occasion. Notably, Gent-Sint-Pieters railway station was completed in 1912 in time for the exposition, and was situated opposite the new hotel, Flandria Palace. The park, Citadelpark, was also redesigned for the fair. The exposition was held on an area of 130 hectares (320 acres), which was larger than Expo 58 in Brussels. Various Belgian cities had a pavilion and an artificial town, called "Oud Vlaenderen" (Old Flanders) was created.
The four sons of Aymon statue, depicting Reinout, Adelaert, Ritsaert and Writsaert on their horse, Beyaert, was erected on the central approach avenue to the exposition.
In preparation for the exhibition, renovations were made in the centre of Ghent, including a large number of houses on the Graslei. Some years beforen the neo gothic St Michael's Bridge had been built to provide visitors to the expo with a vantage point to view the town, the post office and the Korenmarkt (Wheat Market) had been built, and the carved heads now arrayed around it represented the rulers who attended the exhibition (including Florence Nightingale). The construction of the exhibition was controversial and ended on the eve of World War I with serious debts.
Belgium's first aerial postage service was operated from 1 May to 25 August by Henri Crombez during the exposition.
The Ghent fair was attended, among many others, by the much traveled Greek confectionnaire Leonidas Kestekides, and it was then that he decided to settle permanently in Belgium and found the internationally famous Leonidas company.