Two hundred years ago, in 1823, the Ghent city architect Louis Roelandt started establishing the first gas factory on the Waalse Krook, specifically on the site where the Ghent city library now stands.
The Alsberge-Van Oost bleaching plant was founded in 1879. A century later, it collapsed and was left vacant for years.
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On the occasion of International Art Nouveau Day, celebrated each year on June 10, a look at how this ornate architectural movement found its way into the most unlikely of places like coal mines, power stations, and railway yards and the long, sometimes heartbreaking battles to save what remains.
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