Textile industry

The Vesdre River became best known for its heavy flooding in the summer of 2021, but it also brought wealth and industry to Verviers and the surrounding area. Since the Middle Ages, the wool industry flourished in the towns along the Vesder.

The banks of the Vesder in Pepinster are flanked by one of the most iconic facades of a textile factory, that of Textile de Pepinster.

For years, Izegem has been the Belgian shoe and brush city par excellence. Today, the art-deco building of shoe manufacturer Eperon d'Or hides an impressive industrial heritage site.

The Alsberge-Van Oost bleaching plant was founded in 1879. A century later, it collapsed and was left vacant for years.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the Sanitary Underwear Company emerged as the second-largest textile factory in Zottegem, East Flanders.

The Bijgaardehof, the former place where monks of St. Bavo's Abbey grew bees during the Middle Ages, was buried under the buildings of the Baertsoen-Buysse spinning mill at the end of the nineteenth century.

Spinning mills, weaving mills, dyers and twisting mills: in the Belgian town of Ronse, you stumble over the remains of the textile past.

Flannel sheets, cotton pyjamas and shirts from textile company De Porre flew to all corners of the world, ending up in chic boutiques because De Porre guaranteed high quality cotton.

The Dender River takes you from an industrial landscape in Aalst full of textile mills, malthouses and silos to a green oasis dominated by drawbridges and locks.

The Industrial Revolution is not only the story of coal and steel, but also of the mechanization of the textile industry. In 1779, the English inventor Samuel Crompton built the Mule Jenny, a semi-automatic machine which spun yarn.