Abandoned places

When the Dutch king William I took the reins of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, a merger of Belgium and the Netherlands, he began constructing canals.

For the construction of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, Gustave Eiffel had to source 7,000 tons of iron, iron he found near Nancy in the French region of Lorraine.

During his visit to the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, Belgian King Leopold II was enchanted by the attraction Tour du Monde — a colourful collection of Japanese towers, Chinese gateways, and galleries in Hindu style.

Snow or no snow, it didn’t matter here. This concrete ski slope from 1961 was fitted with plastic mats, allowing ski jumpers to train all year round.

Near a ski resort in the Vosges, you may stumble upon an unexpected piece of sports history. Hidden among the trees, concrete remnants recall the presence of a monumental ski jumping hill.

A graceful arch bridge, a kilometres-long railway tunnel, and several pedestrian bridges still recall a railway line in France from the 1930s that was never completed.

This summer, a 113-year-old wooden church was moved to a new location in the Swedish town of Kiruna, and that has everything to do with the iron and steel that surround us.

In the French Moselle, a modest infantry work was built in the early 1930s to protect France against a new German invasion.

For more than half a century, you’ve been able to cross the Kempen Canal near Geel via a Bailey bridge, a temporary bridge developed for military purposes during World War II.

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.