Things to do in Belgium

In just a few years, the Schipperskaai, a traffic-free walking and cycling promenade, has undergone a true metamorphosis with the construction of a new urban district.

With its two headframes, water towers, bathing rooms, coal washeries and unloading floors, the Beringen coal mine is the most complete mining site in the Belgian coal region Limburg.

Izegem in West Flanders was one of the first Flemish municipalities to develop its own power station in 1900. As a result, the largest preserved steam engine in Belgium is located there.

The Martinet coal mine in Charleroi is only a shadow of itself. At the beginning of the 20th century, le Martinet became a leader in the European coal mine industry.

You first have to wade through a field, sticking brambles and a tyre dump, but then you stand at one of the only concrete headframes in Charleroi: le petit Martinet.

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.

On the outskirts of Mons is the Héribus slag heap, a 138-meter-high spoil heap next to the coal mine of the same name that was active here until 1968.

The concrete remains of the Sauwartan coal mine, which closed in 1938, rest at the edge of the Saint-Ghislain forest in Dour.

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."

Volunteers from History Park have taken care of a unique collection of historic railway wagons near the tripoint between Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.