@urbanrelicsphotography / urbanrelicsphotography.tumblr.com
These underground quarries, where mainly phosphated chalk was mined between 1877 and 1925, consist of a series of adjacent and sometimes communicating mines. The quarry extends over an area of almost 68 hectares. About 40 hectares of it can be reached on foot or by canoe. The rest is completely submerged or filled with chalky slime. This slime, grown in specially designated slime ponds, was used as a phosphorus-limestone amendment in the 1930s-1940s.
Every blast furnace company also has a power station. The gases generated during the blast furnace's smelting process were converted into electricity here, which was then used to power the rest of the company.
This power station was part of a blast furnace that was demolished back in 2016. Despite years of inactivity, the power plant has been beautifully preserved. This is probably due to the fact that all possible entrances on the ground floor were firmly closed. Getting in here required some climbing. Since the rest of the site has mostly been demolished, it will only be a matter of time before this beautiful piece of industrial heritage will undergo the same destiny.
There is not much interesting to tell about the history of this old farmhouse. It is a location that has been known in the Belgian urbex community for a long time. Who owned it or why it has been languishing for so long? No idea... In the living area everything was turned upside down and rummaged through, but here and there there were a few nice rooms, which were only affected by the ravages of time...
Except for the beautiful grand piano, this beautiful chateau was almost completely empty. Nice details here and there, such as the bathroom and the stairs. The building needs a makeover, but there is clearly no sign of serious decay (yet). The castle was named Chateau Pentagon because of the special floor plan of the building. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything about its history...
The domain is monitored by a guard. At the time of our visit, he suddenly appeared in the entrance hall. As soon as he understood that we meant no harm, he relaxed. A pleasant conversation ensued and we even got to finish our photos.
In the late 1870s, the student population of Leuven increased dramatically. As a result, the scattered buildings, where medicine was taught, no longer sufficed. The law stipulated that the university had to have sufficient rooms for practicals and laboratories. To meet the need to build new, adapted infrastructure, the university purchased a large domain from a noble family. This domain was behind the existing hospital.
Thanks to a donation from the ultramontane bishop of Liège, the project could start that same year. A young professor affiliated with the Faculty of Applied Sciences was called upon for the design. Shortly thereafter, the building permit was approved by the city. Less than a year later, in 1877, the new institute was inaugurated with great pomp and circumstance.
The institute was built in neo-Gothic style and included an auditorium for 200 students with an adjoining dissection room. The campus was directly connected to the hospital via the garden. Over the years, the complex was expanded with more auditoriums, laboratories and dissection rooms.
The building has been largely empty for several years. Until recently, the pathology institute was still partly in use. Demolition works on the site started at the end of 2019.
In an unsightly village in the Belgian Ardennes, this stately country house has been languishing for years. Who the inhabitants were, why they left this beautiful villa to its fate and why the current owners do nothing to save what can still be saved, is a complete mystery.
When the first pictures surfaced, the villa was still in very good condition. At the time of our visit, a few years later, it had already been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory. Everything that wasn't too hot or too heavy had disappeared and what was left behind had been thoroughly destroyed. Nevertheless, a nice visit that yielded some nice images...
In urbex circles, Powerplant IM and Cooling Tower IM are often regarded as two separate locations. Originally, of course, they formed one entity. The former power station of Monceau-sur-Sambre was built in 1921. The machine buildings were built along the left bank of the Sambre. The cooling tower along the right bank.
The power plant initially ran on pulverized coal. As the demand for energy increased, so did the capacity. That is why the plant was also powered by natural gas from the 1970s. At the end of the 1970s, this power station was the main supplier of electricity in the Charleroi region. However, the power station, which had meanwhile reached a capacity of 92 MegaWatt, also turned out to be a major polluter. It was responsible for no less than a tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions in Belgium. The news was followed by fierce protests from Greenpeace. Production was therefore halted in 2007.
The plant has been systematically dismantled for several years now. The buildings were not spared from thieves and vandals. Today the whole looks sad and only vaguely reminds us of the once powerful energy producer... I had always avoided visting it, because I knew there was very little left of it. Finally, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I did go and have a look and as expected the photo opportunities were very limited... Nevertheless... Hope you enjoy!
Rumor has it that the old lady who lived here moved into a nursing home at the blessed age of 91. That was many years ago, because the dwelling has been a well-known urbex location for at least a decade. Apparently she had no one to care about her house and its contents. Left to the elements, the residence soon began to decay. By now, it has become a real time capsule, even though today very few of her belongings are where she left them. A deplorable combination of less well-intentioned visitors looking for valuables and the staging idiots who for some reason think their photos have to be 'unique'... Still worth a visit for the beautiful, ever-moving decay.
The Kulturkampf of the Protestant Otto von Bismarck banned Catholic monasteries from Germany from about 1870. Numerous monastic orders settled in the border area. This also applies to the order of the Jesuits, which settled in Valkenburg. The Jesuits had conceived the ambitious plan to build the largest building in the Netherlands here. The Ignatius College, as the monastery would be named, was founded between 1893 and 1895 after a design by the German architect H.J. Hürth, who already had several religious buildings to his credit.
The Igatius College became a “Collegium Maximum”, a study and research facility for theologians and philosophers. In addition to the residence cells for the monks, an enormous library with more than 100,000 books and an observatory for the stars was set up. In 1910 a new wing was added, called the 'Moselbrücke'. A group of writing monks settled here with a collection of 70,000 books. The college was attended by professors, writers and students, who enjoyed world fame through their fruitful collaboration with the series ‘Commentaries on the Holy Scriptures’.
During the German occupation of World War II, the Jesuits were again expelled. The SS established the Reichsschule for Boys there in September 1942. The old Gothic chapel was destroyed and completely removed in 1943. From 1944 the complex was used by the Allies as a hospital.
After the war, the complex remained empty for many years, until the Franciscan sisters of St. Joseph settled here in 1961. On their initiative, a new chapel was built between 1962 and 1964 on the foundations of the former Gothic chapel. It turned out to be a "modern" chapel, the style of which clashes somewhat with that of the classical monastery complex. Between 1964 and 1985 the sisters operated the monastery complex as a retirement home, which was known under the name "Huize Boslust".
In 1985 the by now elderly sisters moved into a new monastery, which was established in the garden of the existing monastery. Since then, the Ignatius College has remained empty. The municipality of Valkenburg once had plans to convert the old monastery into a hotel, but those plans were never carried out due to lack of funds. Just before the turn of the century, the monastery was sold to but never used by the Transcendental Meditation Foundation in the Netherlands, which allowed the buildings to deteriorate further. The complex was recently sold again. There is currently no clarity about the plans of the new owner.
This building originally belonged to a nearby textile company. It was used as the administrative headquarters of the company. The name “Villa Klodderkes” is a bit of a misleading name. In the first place because it is not a villa, but a mansion. “Klodderkes” would be derived from “blodden”, a term from the flax mill. The blotting was a step in the process of separating the flax fiber from the raw material.
Later on, the building would serve as a doctor's practice and residence for a while. Its last function, together with the adjacent building, was that of a police station. The reception and cells of the police station are still there. Since the building fell into disuse, it has been the set for movies and television series several times. The mansion is best known for its majestic entrance hall with marble staircases and stained glass windows.
The building is still owned by the city council, but will soon be put up for sale on the private market. There is a real chance that in that case it will be demolished to make way for apartments.
The control and reporting center of the Belgian Air Force has been active here since 1951. The site was specially chosen because of its height and its favorable strategic location. Originally, the radar installation was housed in tents. Later, an underground bunker was built, which was put into use in 1955. The purpose of the center with the radar installation was to ensure the integrity of the Belgian-Luxembourg airspace.
The center moved to a different location in 2020, but the military domain remained active until mid-2022. A center for refugees has now been set up in the above-ground barracks. The three-storey underground bunker was completely emptied and was therefore absolutely uninteresting from a photographic point of view. The radar dome, on the other hand, yielded some nice pictures.
This beautifully preserved square farm is a true time capsule. Especially on the ground floor there were a few rooms with a lot of nice details, such as the sewing machine and the beautiful furniture. In one of the rooms there is even a beautiful intact "Leuvense Stoof" (a typical Belgian stove). There were also many nice details to be found in the attics. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out any history on the inhabitants or the reason why this beautiful square farm was abandoned...
This square farm was built in 1810. In 1970 it was restored and transformed into a country house, with the living areas and a master bedroom in the main house. The stables were converted into guest houses, each with a bedroom, bathroom and living room. On the other side of the yard is a large barn, decorated in an oriental theme, with Chinese lanterns and a painting of a Chinese dragon on one of the walls. There is also a "Stanhope Gig" in the barn; a single horse carriage. It was built around 1900 by the London coachbuilders Tilbury. The venue takes its name from the extensive collection of Garfields on the living room mantel.
These three impressive Russian helicopters have been on Belgian territory for quite some time. They are the result of a partnership between the Belgian company Skytech International and the Russian helicopter manufacturer MIL (now Russian Helicopters) with the aim of offering international heavy helicopter transport. The MI-26T aircrafts were built in the mid-1990s by Rostverol in Rostov-on-Don. With a length of 40 meters and a weight of more than 36 tons, they are not only the largest and heaviest, but also the most powerful helicopters ever built. The aircrafts, of which a total of 316 were built, were used for international humanitarian missions of the UN and NATO.
As the helicopters were no longer suitable for flying in European airspace, they were sold privately. The Dutch owner hoped to find an African buyer for them, but his efforts were unsuccessful. In the meantime, the machines had languished for years, suddenly disappeared from view and reappeared just as suddenly, albeit in a particularly pitiful condition. Many parts had been demolished or were lying disassembled in the hold of the helicopters. Previously made agreements to return them to the Rostov-on-Don factory fell through. After all, it would cost a lot of money to make the aircrafts ready to fly again. Since the costs of stocking them started to increase, an intensive search was made for an alternative which now seems to have been found: some aviation museums are interested in including the special helicopters in their collections. However, the final decision on this has yet to be made…
This impressive mansion is part of a classicist farm complex, dating back to the middle of the 18th century. The extensive farm complex consists on the street side of this manor, a carriage house, a gatehouse and a caretaker's house. At the rear are several stables and a barn converted into an antique shop. At the far end of the site are the old stables.
The luxurious finish of the mansion, including the finely sculpted mantelpieces in marble and stucco, the slate floors, the wall and ceiling paintings and the carved wood bed, is a clear remnant of the past splendor. It is not surprising that the farm complex was marked as architectural heritage as early as 1981.
Little is known about the earliest history of the farm. The whole became vacant when the antique shop located in the outbuildings went into bankruptcy in December 2019.
This old mill dates back to the end of the 19th century. The original flour mill, a five-storey brick building, is at the back of the site and was established before 1909. The mill was powered by a water wheel, which has since disappeared. Behind the building only a fragment of the water wheel can be found. The company was later expanded with a more modern mill at the front of the site. This “new” flour mill was powered by steam turbines.
The old water mill provides a particularly striking picture of an industrial flour mill from the 19th century. Apart from the water wheel and the drive mechanism, the ensemble of silos and grinding machines has been beautifully preserved. However, chances are slim that this will remain the case… A partial collapse of the roof has already caused damage to the attic floor and the water seepage increasingly affects the wooden vaults of the underlying floors.
The entire site was sold in the summer of 2019 to an entrepreneur who wants to accommodate twenty apartments in the buildings. Unfortunately, yet another beautiful piece of industrial heritage will be lost forever…
Behind the depot of a railway enthusiasts' association, in a forest, this collection of railway equipment is waiting for restoration. The wagons displayed here are mainly meter gauge wagons (a form of narrow gauge), mainly used in industrial applications. The "Train de Déconfinement" or evacuation train (main image), for example, comes from the Kempen coal basin, probably from the Beringen coal mine. Such a cart was used to evacuate sick or injured miners from the mine and was set up as a kind of first aid post, where first aid could be given to the sick or injured on the way to the surface. There are also a whole series of mining carts from various mining sites, as well as a tourist carriage from the Averbode park.
Ghislain Mahy was only 25 when he established himself as a used car dealer in Ghent. He soon turned out to have a good eye for valuable old-timers. On the eve of the Second World War, he bought his first classic car, a Ford T, for 150 Belgian Francs. This laid the foundation for one of the most extensive classic car collections in the world. After the war, he bought the Winter Circus in Ghent and converted it into an ambitious garage. By then his collection had expanded to 35 exclusive cars. Ghislain passed on his love for old cars to his eldest son Ivan, with whom he restored more than 250 old cars over a period of 40 years.
In order to share their passion with the general public, father and son Mahy sought and found an old factory, which they could convert into an automobile museum after a few adjustments. Their collection - which now consisted of more than 1000 cars - was housed here together with an extensive library and opened to the public.
However, today there is still a part of the stock, the "reserve", which has never been shown to the public before. In 2021 this reserve was the subject of an exhibition at the Vinckier site in Ghent. The reserve consists of a number of unique old-timers that have not (yet) been restored and includes the Aston Martin DB2 (1953), with which the young King Baudouin once whirled over his Belgian territory.
The neoclassical facade of Aegidium (named after the patron saint of the municipality where the building is located) hardly suggests the special architectural ensemble hidden behind it. The ensemble was built in 1905 after a design by architect Guillaume Segers. The banquet hall complex opened in December 1906 and soon became the center of the city’s nightlife. The Moorish hall, which was originally a banquet hall, was converted into a cinema in 1913 and from then on it was known as the Diamant Palace. After the death of the original owner, the building was taken over and transformed into a dance venue. Of course, that also included a new name: Panthéon Palace.
In 1929 the complex came into the possession of a canon. He had architect Léon Denis carry out a number of works and renamed the whole Aegidium. From then on it would become a meeting center for the local population, with all kinds of social and cultural activities.
The interior is remarkable to say the very least and contains different architectural styles. From the Art Nouveau-style cloakroom, a monumental staircase in pink marble leads to a Beaux-Arts-style landing. The stairwell and landing are illuminated with a spectacular skylight. From the landing there is access on the left to the polygonal conference room in neo-rococo, mixed with Louis XV style, and on the right to the large banquet hall in Moorish style. An unfortunate renovation in 1956 by architects Jean Hendrickx and Yves Stevens caused a change in style in the conference room by installing a concrete ceiling, which divided the room vertically into two parts.
The buildings have been out of use since the mid-1980s. The Moorish banquet hall was already protected as heritage in 1997 and in 2006 the entire complex was classified as a monument. However, renovation has been delayed since 2013. This is due in no small part to the high cost price, estimated at 5 to 6 million euros. The building was eventually sold to two real estate companies, who are planning a housing project with 30 homes.
Due to Tumblr restrictions this is only a selection of photos. Feel free to have a look at my main website for the full set of photos.
This imposing chateau, with adjacent U-shaped farmhouse, was built by a baron, member of a noble family in the South of the Netherlands, who also lived in the property for a long time. The chateau remained in the family's possession for more than 140 years. From the beginning of the 19th century, the property changed owner several times, either through sale or through marriage. In the late 1980s it was bought by a wealthy Flemish businessman, who completely renovated the chateau over the following years.
The farm dates from the early 17th century. The chateau itself, or at least its main western wing, was built about 1670. Over the course of its history, the building has undergone a number of renovations and extensions, mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today it consists of two wings of unequal size, perpendicular to each other. The original west wing, built in sandstone, brick and bluestone, has a massive three-storey tower under a truncated pavilion, reminiscent of a dungeon, and a rectangular two-storey building under a high saddleback ridge. The 1,500 m² living area includes 2 living rooms, 2 dining rooms, a library, 12 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. The Louis XV living room in the tower houses a reused chimney cap from 1726.
The estate covers 70 hectares and includes the farm, a forest, meadows and land for crops. The whole was classified as a monument and as a historic site in 1985.