Industrial Heritage

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.

The Wielemans brothers founded a brewery on a swampy meadow in Vorst in 1879. Their barley drink was so popular that their complex spread like an oil slick.

In just a few years, the Schipperskaai, a traffic-free walking and cycling promenade, has undergone a true metamorphosis with the construction of a new urban district.

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.

Izegem in West Flanders was one of the first Flemish municipalities to develop its own power station in 1900. As a result, the largest preserved steam engine in Belgium is located there.

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.

More than a hundred years ago, on May 12, 1917, the biplane of Count Paul de Goussencourt and Lieutenant de Cubber thundered from the sky during a firefight above Kaaskerke, a small town part of Diksmuide. Both died instantly.