Its curved façade follows that of the dike, the latter forming solid foundations. The façade consists of a covered terrace, thirty feet wide, extending round the central rotunda. The latter, elliptical in shape, is 200 feet long, 120 feet wide and 75 feet high, and forms an immense hall capable of holding some 5,000 people. Symphony concerts are given there. _Return by the path on the west side and take the broad Avenue Léopold, opposite, ornamented with gardens, to =Leopold Park= (see plan, p. 60.)_ Leopold Park. Leopold Park was laid out in former days on the site of the old fortifications, near the Western Gate, the _glacis_ of the bastions being used to break the monotony of the level ground. _After visiting the park, return to Avenue Ch. Janssens, which separates it from Boulevard Léopold, and take same on the left. In Place Léopold, take Chaussée de Thourout, on the left, then Rue de Leffingue as far as the entrance to the ="Tirpitz" Battery=, (photos below and p. 64), situated on the right some few hundred yards outside the town._ [Illustration: +The Tirpitz Battery, photographed from Allied aeroplane, July 31, 1916+] [Illustration: +General view of the powerful Tirpitz Battery.+ _The background:_ +Ostend.+ _Inset:_ +Breech of one of the Guns.+] The Tirpitz Battery. This powerful battery has four 11in. armour-protected guns, mounted on circular tracks on hollow platforms of masonry about 46 feet in diameter. The shelters behind the guns were destroyed. The battery was protected by trenches and barbed-wire entanglements. On the left, facing the sea, are screens which masked the fire of the guns from the land observation-posts. In front of the right-hand gun was the post of commandment. The guns of this battery were being built by Krupps in 1914, to the order of the Belgian Government, for the forts of Antwerp. _Return to the town by Rue de Leffingue, Rue du Chemin-de-fer, and Quai du Châtelet; the latter skirts_ the 3rd and 2nd Commercial Docks _and ends at Place Vanderzweep, near the station (see plan, p. 60_). _Cross the bridge, on the left, between the 2nd and 1st Docks, then turn to the right along Quai de l'Empereur._ _The Place du Commerce is next reached, at the end of which stands_ the +Church of St. Peter and Paul+. [Illustration: _+Dock No. 2, Church of St. Peter and Paul+ (left) and the +Station+ (right.)_] [Illustration: +Ostend. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.+] The modern Church of St Peter and Paul stands on the site of a former church of that name (1717) which was burnt down in 1896, with the exception of the campanile still standing behind the new building. At the foot of the new choir is an allegorical group in white marble (by Fraikin), to the memory of Louis-Marie d'Orléans, first Queen of the Belgians and wife of Léopold I, who died at Ostend in 1850. _Opposite the church, facing the port, is_ the =Maritime Station=, which suffered severely from the aerial bombardments.