For the origins of the steel industry in Seraing, we have to go back two hundred years. At the time, two brothers, John and Charles James Cockerill, were looking for a suitable location for a modern ironworks and workshop.

They soon established a construction workshop in the leafy gardens of the former prince-bishops, a foundry with two cupola furnaces and later a first coke blast furnace.

The 'Lion's Mound' iron parts were cast here in 1826, and John Cockerill built the first Belgian steam locomotive at the end of 1835. After he died in 1840, the workshops continued to churn out steam engines, ship lifts, rails, etc.

In 1927, the workshops hosted the (postponed) festivities for the arrival of the Cockerills in Seraing. The centenary in 1917 itself was overshadowed by the violence of the First World War and massive looting by the German army.

Discours de Seraing

King Albert I then delivered his Discours de Seraing in the rebuilt halls of the factory and Cockerill received a posthumous compliment from the monarch. Today's workshops are but a shadow of themselves.

Food market

However, the vacant halls are being given new life. In the summer, use-in took place there, a festival with bars, food trucks, films, theater and a flea market, a temporary function in anticipation of Gastronomia, a food market whose works started in 2022.