East Flanders

The cut-off meanders of the once winding Dender river form a unique nature reserve today, with this centuries-old drawbridge as the cherry on top.

What at first glance appears to be a forgotten industrial remnant turns out, on closer inspection, to tell a rich story about the agro-industry along the Scheldt river in Belgium.

In the early twentieth century, Ghent, Belgium, made a massive switch to electric power for trams, street lighting, and harbour cranes. To meet the growing demand, the city commissioned the construction of coal-fired power stations.

Rising quietly beside the tracks of Oudenaarde Station in East Flanders, the old water tower is easy to overlook—yet it stands as a striking piece of industrial heritage.

A more than 100-year-old port crane waltzed around Antwerp's port docks until early this century.

At barely 25, Jules de Hemptinne stood at the cradle of a cotton spinning and weaving mill on the Kolveniersgang.

At the edge of a flooded clay pit, a rusting clay dredger recalls the mechanical mining of clay for the brick industry.

Trains have been thundering over the Vierendeel bridge in Grammene between Deinze and De Panne for over a century.

On Christmas Eve 1944, disaster struck Kalken when a V1 bomb hit the Vaart canal in Kalken at 4 pm.

In 1990, a Sherman tank was parked at Balgerhoeke lock in Eeklo in honour of the Canadians who liberated the town from German occupation on 15 September 1944.