In 1959, an eighty-metre-high blast furnace rose from the ground in Sestao, a municipality about five kilometres from the Spanish port city of Bilbao.
Dive into the heart of Europe's industrial revolution with a visit to its iron and steel heritage sites. From monumental blast furnaces to historic forges, explore the engineering feats that fueled progress.
In 1959, an eighty-metre-high blast furnace rose from the ground in Sestao, a municipality about five kilometres from the Spanish port city of Bilbao.
Two brothers, Charles and Jules Collart, secured a concession in 1881 to mine iron ore at the foot of the Katzenberg in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Of the six blast furnaces that the Uckange steel factory had in the early twentieth century, today, only the 71-meter-high blast furnace 4 remains.
The Belval blast furnaces in Esch-sur-Alzette are the last remnants of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg steel industry. In 1997, the steel factory was shut down for good, only to rise like a phoenix from its ashes a few years later.
On the Luxemburgplein in Ixelles, you will come across the John Cockerill Monument. In 1872, a year after his statue was unveiled in Seraing, Willem Rau, Cockerill's loyal right-hand man, took the initiative to donate a statue to Brussels.
John Cockerill (and the rest of his family) propelled Belgium, the Netherlands, Prussia and France into the era of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. A few decades after Cockerill's death, a monument honoring the 'father of the workers' was unveiled in the streets of Seraing.
The Cockerill family's tomb in the Spa cemetery pales into insignificance compared to the monument that adorned the family grave for a century.
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On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall—a symbol of Cold War division and oppression—was breached, and Berliners poured through the newly opened checkpoints in an emotional wave of unity and celebration. Now, thirty-five years later, the wall no longer divides East from West, but its remnants and the scars it left on Berlin are still visible, telling the story of a city split in two for nearly three decades.
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