Abandoned places

More than a hundred years ago, on May 12, 1917, the biplane of Count Paul de Goussencourt and Lieutenant de Cubber thundered from the sky during a firefight above Kaaskerke, a small town part of Diksmuide. Both died instantly.

The statue of King Leopold II on the Throne Place, Brabo in Antwerp and Manneken Pis: one by one bronze monuments cast by the "Compagnie des Bronzes de Bruxelles."

Expo 58 left its mark on Brussels in every possible way. Just think of the reconstruction of the inner ring road and the Atomium. But what remains of it on the grounds of the world exhibition itself?

The Centenary Palace, a gift for Belgium's hundredth birthday, was the focal point of the World Exhibition in 1935, as the year in the pediments reveals.

Trucks and cars rush over the Estaimpuis bridge towards Kortrijk or Tournai. But under the bridge, you will only find a traffic-free meadow.

The Spuikom in Ostend became a military air base during the First World War. In early 1917, the German army built the Seeflugstation Flandern II to defend the port of Ostend against English attacks.

On the Luxemburgplein in Ixelles, you will come across the John Cockerill Monument. In 1872, a year after his statue was unveiled in Seraing, Willem Rau, Cockerill's loyal right-hand man, took the initiative to donate a statue to Brussels.

European heritage organization Europa Nostra has added the ruins of Charles of Lorraine's Palace in Mariemont to its shortlist of most endangered monuments in 2023.