Major Mining Sites of Wallonia
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How it came to be
The Major Mining Sites of Wallonia are four collieries, Grand-Hornu, Bois-du-Luc, Bois du Cazier and Blegny-Mine, spread along a strip about 170 km long and 3 to 15 km wide across Belgium from east to west. They were worked from the early 19th to the second half of the 20th century, and of the hundreds of collieries in Wallonia they are the best preserved.
Grand-Hornu is a colliery and workers' town built by Henri De Gorge between 1810 and 1830. After his fifth shaft struck good seams in 1814, he began a plan in 1816 that included model housing for his workers. Bois-du-Luc, one of Europe's oldest collieries, goes back to the late 17th century and keeps workers' housing from the 1830s, and at Blegny-Mine mining was begun in the 16th century by the monks of Val-Dieu Abbey.
On 8 August 1956 a fire in a shaft at Bois du Cazier killed 262 men of 12 nationalities, 136 of them Italian. After the disaster mining safety rules were revised across Europe. The four sites were inscribed in 2012.
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