Things to do in Belgium

On the eve of the Second World War, the former petroleum port of Antwerp was equipped with a brand new network of above-ground pipelines.

The Prince-Bishop's Palace of Seraing hides the former workshops of the Cockerill company.

In the valley of the Meuse, squeezed between railway line 125 and the river itself, lies a brick ensemble built in 1901 on behalf of Les Moulins de Namur et de Jambes.

In the 1960s, Flanders had its first steel factory along the Ghent-Terneuzen canal. There, Sidmar (Sidérurgie Maritime) rose from the ground. Today, it is the home of the only active blast furnaces in Belgium.

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

Neither the city of Charleroi nor the Walloon Region wants to release the money to maintain blast furnace 4 in Marchienne-au-Pont and preserve it for future generations.

The Industrial Revolution is not only the story of coal and steel, but also of the mechanization of the textile industry. In 1779, the English inventor Samuel Crompton built the Mule Jenny, a semi-automatic machine which spun yarn.

Of the eight flax mills that Heule once had, only Preetjesmolen remains. This flax winding mill was built between 1859 and 1870 on behalf of farmer Ivo Deprez, hence the name Preetjesmolen ("Deprez' Mill").