History:
The history of this former steelworks dates all the way back to the middle of the 1800s. At this time a small forge in the Belgium town of La Louviere began expanding its operations. By 1900 over 1200 employees were active on the terrain. When the first world war broke out nearly all of the terrain was lost, the reconstruction efforts began right after the war was over. In 1919 the works was back on track with two brand new blast furnaces. Throughout the years the site continued with the expanding. The works reached its peak in the 1970s, at that moment the works employed over 3200 people and housed 6 blast furnaces. The downfall began shortly after this peak. With the international energy crisis of the 70s, many European steelworks came into heavy weather. In the 90s all of the blast furnaces were shut off, just a small section of the steelworks like rolling mills were kept active. In the beginning of the 2000s all of the blast furnaces were demolished. The power plant and parts of the steelworks waren't demolished though.
In the summer of 2020 I was fortunate enough to have visited these two remains of this legendary steelworks. These parts were demolished not a lot of time later..
The state of the boilers in december of 2020.
Photos of the old boiler house:
Photos of the semi- active turbine hall:
The remains of the grand steelworks:
I also made a short documentary in which I explore the former steelworks:
Thanks for reading and watching!
The history of this former steelworks dates all the way back to the middle of the 1800s. At this time a small forge in the Belgium town of La Louviere began expanding its operations. By 1900 over 1200 employees were active on the terrain. When the first world war broke out nearly all of the terrain was lost, the reconstruction efforts began right after the war was over. In 1919 the works was back on track with two brand new blast furnaces. Throughout the years the site continued with the expanding. The works reached its peak in the 1970s, at that moment the works employed over 3200 people and housed 6 blast furnaces. The downfall began shortly after this peak. With the international energy crisis of the 70s, many European steelworks came into heavy weather. In the 90s all of the blast furnaces were shut off, just a small section of the steelworks like rolling mills were kept active. In the beginning of the 2000s all of the blast furnaces were demolished. The power plant and parts of the steelworks waren't demolished though.
In the summer of 2020 I was fortunate enough to have visited these two remains of this legendary steelworks. These parts were demolished not a lot of time later..
The state of the boilers in december of 2020.
Photos of the old boiler house:
Photos of the semi- active turbine hall:
The remains of the grand steelworks:
I also made a short documentary in which I explore the former steelworks:
Thanks for reading and watching!
