Industrial Heritage

In the early twentieth century, a water tower was erected near the Treignes border station to supply the steam locomotives running between Charleroi and the French border.

Mariembourg station, today the terminus of railway line 132 between Charleroi and the Belgian-French border, has a spacious water tower in store.

The Koppenberg in the Flemish Ardennes is not only the setting of the Tour of Flanders but also forms the background of railway line 85 between Leupegem and Herseaux near the French border.

The ten-kilometre-long railway line 102 cut through the Borinage and connected several coal mines between Saint-Ghislain and Frameries.

On the eve of the Second World War, the former petroleum port of Antwerp was equipped with a brand new network of above-ground pipelines.

The Prince-Bishop's Palace of Seraing hides the former workshops of the Cockerill company.

In the valley of the Meuse, squeezed between railway line 125 and the river itself, lies a brick ensemble built in 1901 on behalf of Les Moulins de Namur et de Jambes.

In the 1960s, Flanders had its first steel factory along the Ghent-Terneuzen canal. There, Sidmar (Sidérurgie Maritime) rose from the ground. Today, it is the home of the only active blast furnaces in Belgium.

The Ronquières Inclined Plane spans 68 meters and thus replaces sixteen locks on the canal between Brussels and Charleroi.

Neither the city of Charleroi nor the Walloon Region wants to release the money to maintain blast furnace 4 in Marchienne-au-Pont and preserve it for future generations.