Industrial Heritage

The headframe of Puits Vuillemin 2 is more than a century old; it is not only a rare survivor of France's coal-mining past but also a significant architectural and technological artefact in the history of industrialisation in Europe.

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.

Tucked away in the northern French town of Croix stands a bold statement in brick, steel, and marble: Villa Cavrois. This striking modernist mansion, completed in 1932, was the brainchild of famed architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.

The former VEB Schultheiss-Brauerei Schönhauser Allee today houses everything except a brewery. Brewing beer had already come to an end in the GDR era.

Anyone following the winding footpath through this protected nature reserve unwittingly steps into a fascinating, but forgotten chapter of industrialisation.

Even though the curtain fell on the United Textile Mills (Verenigde Textielfabrieken or Vetex) in Kortrijk over 30 years ago, the company name still graces the streetscape

A concrete water tower still testifies to the ultimate attempt by a group of West Flanders flax companies to secure sufficient water to sustain flax production.

Neutral Moresnet formed a mini-state on the border with Belgium between 1816 and 1920 where zinc company Vieille Montagne called the shots.

In 1937, steel company S.A. d'Ougrée-Marihaye established its central workshops in Ougrée, Belgium. The workshops were strategically located on a railway line between the former Ougrée coking plant and the extinguished Blast Furnace B.

Aircraft development in Germany gained momentum after Adolf Hitler came to power in early 1933.