C-Mine

The deep and productive coal mines opened up in the early twentieth century in the Kempen region of Limburg province, where there had previously been very little industrial development, were for more than half a century one of the mainstays of the Belgian economy, but, as in other parts of Europe, even large-scale and well-equipped collieries ceased to be viable from the 1980s. Winterslag pit, 4 km north-west of the city of Genk, was the first of the Limburg mines to open, in 1917, and was also the last to close, in 1988. It has been adapted as a cultural centre, intended to foster creativity both in business and the arts. Two steel headstocks, the power station, the winding engine and the pit baths can still be recognised, but the surface buildings have been adapted as auditoria of various sizes, one of them a ten-screen cinema, and they now house exhibitions, shops, restaurants and facilities for meetings.