Coal mines

A tangle of railways ran through the Limburg coal region, transporting millions of tons of coal to ports and blast furnaces. The coal wagons have disappeared, but old stations and tracks remind us of the busy traffic of yesteryear.

Over a century ago, in 1917, the coal mine of Winterslag was the first Kempen mine to open its gates.

On August 8, 1956, disaster struck the Bois du Cazier mine in Charleroi, Belgium. A fire broke out hundreds of meters underground, killing 262 miners.

The Argenteau-Trembleur mine in Blegny is the last bastion of the Liège coal industry. In 1980, It closed its gates for the third time permanently.

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.

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.

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 Borinage must once have had the densest railway network in the world, and that was due to the large concentration of coal mines in the region.