Water towers

A nearly 100-year-old water tower casts its shadow over the Opexquarter in the Belgian coast village of Ostend.

During the modernisation of the steel company ARBED (Aciéries Réunies de Burbach‑Eich‑Dudelange), a concrete water tower was built in 1928.

Rising quietly beside the tracks of Oudenaarde Station in East Flanders, the old water tower is easy to overlook—yet it stands as a striking piece of industrial heritage.

Antwerp has been connected to the Netherlands by rail since 1854. In the early days, trains wriggled through the city centre at street level, which was not ideal. Indeed, steam locomotives caused a lot of noise and odour during their passage.

A steel water tower marks the site of the long-defunct coal mine Carolus Magnus in the Aachen mining district.

Flemish workers flocked to Mouscron during the interwar to work in textile factories. The city, therefore, had to pull out all the stops to cope with the growing population.

A water tower in the Walloon Brabant village of Virginal-Samme still recalls the architecture of the 1940s.

Melle, near Ghent, was once the walhalla for flower and ornamental cultivation. Greenhouses, florist houses and horticultural businesses flanked the roads.

In a remote corner of the Maritime Station, a former freight station in Brussels, a water tower in the Art Nouveau style was built to refuel steam locomotives with water.