Former stronghold of industry in Belgium, the city and region of Charleroi keep the indelible traces of this
prestigious past.
What remains of this arsenal of factories, workshops, blast furnaces and coal mines that made the country's wealth
until the interwar period ?
Scattered ruins, large buildings having lost their first vocation, a massacred environment and a glory that is only a vague memory.
Charleroi was the seat of the ACECsNote1. Everything related to
electricity or electronics was stamped ACECs. From televisions to NMBS/SNCB trains, aerospace and lighting. Without forgetting
the nuclear : the ACECs took a large part in the design of BR-1, BR-2 and BR-3Note2,
the first nuclear reactors of Belgium, between 1954 and 1962. During the sixties, the caroloregian company rivaled in all areas and
without problem with the Dutch giant, Philips.
Unfortunately, from the 70's, problems accumulated and finally, the venerable company founded in 1886 will be cut up between Alcatel,
Alstom and the Walloon region. We are then in 1989.
ACECs logo
Why this evocation of the ACECs ? Because it alone illustrates the infernal fall of the capital of the "Pays Noir".
Charleroi (and Wallonia in general) has miss the economic reconversion of the sixties and sink gradually, with the fatal
procession of restructuring, resumption-closures and relocations. Unemployment is skyrocketing, the population is dangerously
pauperizing and the only thing that seems to withstand the winds and tides is the Socialist Party.
From the pre-war industrial jewel, the city will become the bastion of crime, corruption and the Van Cauwenberghe
systemNote3. The city inherits the unflattering nickname of 'Chicago-on-Sambre'.
I will not go back too much on this heresy that is the "light" subway of CharleroiNote4...
Coat of arms of Charleroi
Once there, the feeling of abandonment immediately invades me.
Another thing that struck me was the reception of the local population. From the neighbor of foundry Giot to kids playing in the
street, no one has hesitated to tell me and to show me their daily life.
Obviously, few "officials" are interested in these people... The priorities are elsewhere. But where ? No idea...
To radically change the scenery and get rid of my lungs a little, detour by Beaumont.
Small tourist town perched on its rocky piton, it dominates the beautiful valley of the Hantes. A complete change of scenery only
thirty kilometers from Charleroi.
Pictures
Charleroi
On the way to Charleroi ! Stop on a highway area with breathtaking views of the boat lift Strépy-Thieu...
Charleroi
... and panorama on the border between the Center and the Borinage.
Charleroi
Charleroi
Corner of Hainaut still green between two large ex-industrial basins.
Charleroi
The spoil tips are the main relief of the region.
Charleroi
Who says Charleroi says football. The stadium of the local Sporting stuck in a residential area.
Charleroi
Renovated from top to bottom for Euro 2000, ten years later (and a few tens of millions by the way...), it is at the heart of a legal battle between the city and the residents.
Charleroi
The Mambourg stadium being there well before the first houses, the people settling here knew what to hold.
Charleroi
A bit like settling near an airport and then complaining about noise.
Charleroi
This stadium is still a beautiful technical feat. Too bad it will be soon demolished.
Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi
Another club, other stadium, other environment. Welcome to the Neuville, Olympic's lair.
Charleroi
Evolving at a level below that of Sporting, the “Dogues” nevertheless maintain a visceral hatred towards the big brother of Sporting.
Charleroi
Here, no grandiose constructions, we are satisfied with an old arena built in the 1930's.
Charleroi
The Olympic Club should have emigrated to the Mambourg after Euro 2000 but his supporters did not look favorably this forced move to the home of the hereditary enemy.
Charleroi
The old club of the Neuville stadium will finally stay in its facilities certainly outdated but charming.
Charleroi
The Sambre, the first artery of Charleroi, passing close to the railway station.
Charleroi
Near the Law Courts, in the city center.
Charleroi
The old urban core offers a certain urban anarchy, evil that suffers most Walloon cities.
Charleroi
Charleroi
Place Emile Buisset.
Charleroi
Charleroi-Sud train station, recently refurbished. The station is totally isolated from the rest of the city by the Sambre.
Charleroi
Place Jean Monnet.
Charleroi
Near there, radical change of scenery. Rue de Marchienne, between a NMBS/SNCB railway line and the factories of the Arcelor-Mittal group.
Charleroi
Here, no houses, park or church. Only heavy industry (or its ruins) over square kilometers.
Charleroi
Sometimes we find a building on a human scale, among the steel monsters of the industrial basin.
Charleroi
The houses leaned against the bridge. The people who live here suffer enormously from pollution, in total indifference. Far off, the Giot Foundry.
Charleroi
The water tower of the FAFER, well known to urban explorers.
Charleroi
The former administrative offices of FAFER, rue de l'Alliance.
Charleroi
The doors definitively closed on a past gone.
Charleroi
On the other side of the Sambre, another known place, the old water tower of the Forges de la Providence. It shouldn't stay long standing.
Charleroi
The coking plant of Providence, at a standstill. When in operation, flames escaped, as well as plumes of black smoke.
Charleroi
The ancient water tower. In the back, ground in reconversion.
Charleroi
The part of the site of the forges still in activity, towards Charleroi. On the right, the subway viaduct.
Charleroi
A building eaten away by oblivion and pollution.
Charleroi
The glaucous access of the namesake subway station "Forges de la Providence".
Charleroi
The station (in dilapidated state) being built on a viaduct, it offers some interesting points of view.
Charleroi
Red light for the Providence.
Charleroi
All the beauty and freshness of the entrance to the subway station. There is no need to say, we feel alive in Charleroi !
Charleroi
Last look at the Providence.
Charleroi
The spoil tips are the last visible witnesses of the coal mining which made of this region the second richest in the world in the 19th century.
Charleroi
Things today are not exactly the same. Abandoned gas station, as a symbol of a region in full decay.
Charleroi
The high chimneys of the pellet plant at the Carsid site, along the N90.
Charleroi
A small marshalling yard, with at the bottom, the center of Charleroi.
Charleroi
The hyper-industrial landscape of Marchienne, where nature is struggling to resist.
Charleroi
Summit of a green heap. Given the nature of it, you should never walk on it unless it is explicitly allowed.
Charleroi
The beautiful boards of SPAQuE, which boasts of having cleaned the site of the Giot Foundry.
Charleroi
Houses in the immediate vicinity of the Fonderie Giot.
Charleroi
The Giot Foundry as a whole. For the exploration of the foundry, it's here .
Charleroi
Ruined by decades of abandonment and vandalism, old walls are just waiting to collapse.
Charleroi
After the distressing show for everyone to see, I introduce you backstage. Again, it's not sad !
Charleroi
These images are taken from the garden of a neighbor of the Fonderie Giot. Thanks to him for opening the doors of his house.
Charleroi
As we can see, SPAQuE excels in the art of sanitation. And to say that this organization is financed by our taxes ! Disgusting.
Charleroi
To cheer me up after the grayness of Charleroi, small jump to Beaumont. Here, we can breathe safely.
Charleroi
The city dominates the valley of the Hantes.
Charleroi
The Beaumont situation at the top of an escarpment will cause many sieges and battles.
Charleroi
Towards the Salamander Tower.
Charleroi
The gray mass of the Salamander Tower hides behind the trees.
Charleroi
Rue de la Poterne.
Charleroi
At the foot of the Salamander Tower. Built in the 11th century, it will be burned by the French in 1655 and the English in 1691.
Charleroi
Charleroi
The Salamander Tower and the Poterne, a remnant of the communal defensive wall.
Charleroi
Close up on the Poterne (16th century).
Charleroi
Below, the bucolic setting of the Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier chapel.
Charleroi
On the Grand'Place, the town hall (on the left) and the Prince's castle.
Charleroi
The Saint-Servais Church, neoclassical style. It replaced in 1775 a large Gothic church ruined by the French in 1655.
Charleroi
Details on the Prince's Castle. Napoleon stayed there the day before his defeat at Waterloo.
Charleroi
In Montignies-Saint-Christophe, there is an interesting Gallo-Roman bridge-dam.
Charleroi
Built in the 5th century, it allowed to replace a ford, difficult to cross because of the flow of the Hantes, on the old Roman road Bavay-Trier.
Charleroi
In the vicinity of the bridge, there are some fortified farms worthy of interest, as well as walks through woods or fields.
Charleroi
The bridge has just been restored. The proximity of a car park spoils the landscape somewhat.
Charleroi
Direction home !
Notes
-
ACEC (means Electrical Engineering Workshops in Charleroi), founded by Julien Dulait.
In 1904, the small company is taken over by Baron Empain. Its development will be exponential until the 1960's. Baron Empain was notably the designer and owner of Métro de Paris, until 1949. - Acronym of Belgian Reactor, the No. 3 will be the prototype of the current European nuclear power plants (REP). The ACECs will build the first French nuclear reactor (Chooz A, commissioned in 1967 and shut down in 1991) and will become the preferred supplier of the following plants.
- Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe (born in 1944), often nicknamed Van Cau, had been the uncontested and undisputed master (only in French) of Charleroi between 1982 and 2010. He will finally be swept away by the famous "Affaires de Charleroi" (only in French).
-
Charleroi ghost subway, on Wikipedia.
One of the best-of of Petit guide des Grands Travaux Inutiles (only in French), by Jean-Claude Defossé.
Related pages
- Page dedicated to the exploration of the Giot Foundry.
- The stadiums of Charleroi : the Mambourg & the Neuville.
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