Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto during the years he lived in Brussels, and also disdainfully referred to Belgium as a capitalist paradise, for a reason. A trip to Wallonia’s former industrial belt stretching along the valleys of the Rivers Sambre and Meuse, is to visit the graveyard of a vast industrial enterprise that generated unimaginable wealth for Belgium’s 19th century capitalists, and immense misery for those living and working in the appalling conditions of the new industrial towns.
In the 19th century, Wallonia’s coal fields and steel mills close to the town of Charleroi made this area the most industrialised region in Europe outside of Britain, home of the Industrial Revolution. The River Sambre, which runs 190 km from France through the Belgian coal fields until it meets the River Meuse at Namur, was the major waterway connecting Belgium’s industrial heartland to the world.
In its heyday, the Sambre passed through what was known as the Sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. Barges carried shipments of coal, iron ore, and other metals to the furnaces that manufactured steel; and then carried the steel to markets around Europe. The vast profits that they manufactured are long gone, leaving behind only the skeletons of steel mills and coal mines.
It’s hard today to imagine the size and scale of Belgium’s now moribund coal and steel industries. It’s even harder to imagine that the beautiful River Sambre was once a bustling and polluted industrial waterway. It turns out that the grim reality of Wallonia’s terminal industrial decline has some upsides. Despite the heavy industry that once lined its banks, this stretch of attractive Wallonian countryside is now a picture of serenity.
Working barges still ply these waters, but these days a majority of boats on the mostly canalised Sambre are there for pleasure. They pass through farmland and wooded hills far from the hustle and bustle of modern life. There are also historic towns and villages, as well as the occasional medieval abbey, either on the banks of the river or a short distance from the water.
It makes for a great day of exploration by bicycle from Binche, and one rewarded by an abbey beer at either end of the route. I followed a former railway line now cycle path past the Abbaye Notre Dame De Bonne-Espérance to the river at Lobbes, a small town with an enormous abbey that seemed to be preparing for a wine festival. On the bank of the river I made my way to Thuin.
Thuin is a town built on a very steep hill with plenty of cobbled streets to make life for cyclists deeply unpleasant. Make the climb from the banks of the Sambre though, and you’re greeted by the sight of a medieval belfry that is one of 33 in Belgium designated as an UNESCO World Heritage site. The views from here aren’t bad either, one reason the Romans built a fort nearby in the 2nd century.
The town is an attractive place with ancient buildings highlighting its former wealth in the medieval period. The most famous sight is Thuin’s Hanging Gardens. If your mind ran immediately to Babylon, you need to scale back your expectations. Attractive terraced gardens climb up the hillside to what would have been the medieval city walls, the view of the townscape is lovely.
Further along the river is Abbaye d’Aulne, a 7th century Benedictine monastery founded by Landelin, an Irish monk. Just over a thousand years later, French Revolutionaries chased away the monks and burned the abbey down. It remains an atmospheric ruin, albeit one held up by scaffolding in some places. I wandered around before heading to the real reason for coming here: the Brasserie de l’Abbaye d’Aulne.
The Brasserie has brought the brewing tradition of the abbey back to life a century and a half after the last monks left. I sat in the beer garden and had a well deserved bruin beer. Refreshed, I set off back to Binche following the river all the way to Labuissière. A few more kilometres and I’d have been in France, but instead I headed back to Binche where another UNESCO belfry sits in the town square.
Though I do not wish to go into the current Flanders/Wallonie… dispute, it does seem to me that in the 19th century Wallonie was much richer than Flanders. Now it’s the other way round… 😉
All well Paul?
The economic fortunes of the two regions have completely reversed, Brian, a contentious political issue all of its own.
All well here thanks, we’re having a September heatwave, 30C today which seems unthinkable to my younger self growing up in northern Europe.
Hope all’s well with you?
Reversed indeed. Which some don’t realize, or accept, but that’s another issue.
Heat! Ha! I’m in Paris right now. Didn’t come in July to avoid the heat! LOL. It was like 34 yesterday. Nothing a good cool beer at a terrace can’t fix anyway.
Cheers Paul
It really is lovely, though it is a shame that the cost is so steep in terms of the industrial and economic decline and its knock on effects.
That region has really suffered. I haven’t been to Charleroi yet, but everyone tells me it is the poster child for industrial decline. I plan to visit in the not too distant future though.