Abandoned places

In 2001, European leaders of state and government gathered in the royal castle of Laeken. With their meeting, King Leopold II's hundred-year-old dream became a reality: to turn Laeken into a Palace of Nations, home to international conferences.

Half a century ago, the Belgian Ministry of Public Works rolled up its sleeves to build an industrial road between a factory and a nearby freight station in Hainaut.

The former grandeur of Charleroi still resonates in Art Deco buildings and modernist gems such as the colourful newspaper kiosk by architect Léon Coton.

Unlike the Belgian cities of Liège, Antwerp, Ghent or Brussels, Charleroi never hosted a World Fair. Therefore, the smaller-scale Universal Exhibition of Charleroi in 1911 was no less ambitious.

The Ronquières Inclined Plane spans 68 meters and thus replaces sixteen locks on the canal between Brussels and Charleroi.

West Flanders has never known coal mines. Yet you can still find shafts, drilling machines and other traces of miners in the West Flemish underground.

Two dilapidated watchman's pavilions, built in the early nineteenth century, are at the edge of a vast forest in Wallonia.

A monumental bonded warehouse was built in 1902 at the Essen border station along railway line 12 between Antwerp (Belgium) and Roosendaal in the Netherlands.

Almost thirty years after the construction of this useless bridge, the planned regional road underneath has still not been constructed. Instead of cars rushing by, nature is given free rein for now.