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Hasard Cheratte (Cheratte Mine) Belgium

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Near Visé, Belgium lies the mining village of Cheratte, where coal was unearthed between 1847 and 1977. After finding a generous seam of coal in 1851, the company began serious development of the site. They sank new shafts, developed the aboveground structures, and hired hundreds of miners.

As workers chased the seam underground, they passed the water table of the nearby river, dooming the mineshaft, which flooded persistently thereafter. Pumps attached to steam engines were installed to keep the lower sections productive, but less than a year later, in 1877, the flooding caused a major tunnel collapse, trapping and drowning the workers in that section. The mine closed for the first time.

In 1907, investors who wanted to again tap the coal under Cheratte paid for the construction of the first mine headframe in Belgium. A headframe is the part of a mine where the shaft meets the surface, and it is typically a simple tower with a hoist in the center. Cheratte is different, though.

For reasons I cannot explain, but choose simply to appreciate, they built the tower and support structures in a medieval influenced neo-gothic style. At its peak, 1,500 men worked here, and about half that number still took the ride underground when the operation closed in 1977.

Though Cheratte’s coal mine is in ruins, hundreds of photographers visit it yearly to experience the architecture there in person. That is to say, thanks for making room on the bandwagon for a Minnesotan, Belgium!

Parking strictly forbidden. A sign in front of Cheratte's former truck shops.
Parking strictly forbidden. A sign in front of Cheratte’s former truck shops.

Exploring Cheratte

Hopping a Belgian fence in between mostly abandoned worker housing and a dilapidated garage seemed like a small price to pay to capture my own version of what so many photographers and historians have seen before me.

A place to turn mine carts into different areas of the shops.
A place to turn mine carts into different areas of the shops.

The well-traveled path through the thorny hedge brought me into a brick warehouse that I would date to the turn of the century. Through the middle of the floor was a rusty narrow gauge track set into the floor. Ghosts of industrial work stations lined the sides of the cayenne-gray walls; I was obviously in some kind of workshop—not a warehouse at all—I concluded.

Algae grows where water flows/From the sawtooth roof/To the mines below/The sun climbs high/But is in no one's eyes/A wall alone crumbles/It was no suprise
Algae grows where water flows/From the sawtooth roof/To the mines below/The sun climbs high/But is in no one’s eyes/A wall alone crumbles/It was no suprise

I circled the room, taking in the mossy concrete floors that grew under broken skylights. Every door seemed to offer a new adventure, and I felt like the fate of the day depended simply on my next step. The biggest, darkest path attracted me the most. Propped up by steel girders and being plenty big for a monster truck, I picked up my tripod and clicked on my flashlight, and carefully went into the chamber.

Across the walls of the brick repair shop, near where men and machine entered Shaft No. 3, vines, pipes, and graffiti battle unknowingly for visual prominence.
Across the walls of the brick repair shop, near where men and machine entered Shaft No. 3, vines, pipes, and graffiti battle unknowingly for visual prominence.

One of the mine shafts itself greeted me as a secret black giant, walled up in time and space. Far above me I saw, when I leaned backward and craned my neck in reverse, that there was some light at the top. In between the sky (seemingly) and me was the skeleton of an elevator, but with the size and strength of a construction crane. Though I tempted fate by climbing the railings to one of the landings, the feeling of the century-then metal sagging beneath me was enough to sink my feet back into the dirt again. Emerging from the mineshaft into the hallway, I felt my eyes adjust—the world of the mine equipment repair shop seemed all the more bright and vivid by comparison.

In this old repair shop, vines fall from the rotting roof to meet mossy concrete. Even though it had been dry for days, water dripped in from the roof to make permanent puddles between workstations. It was full of color and sound and industry and nature.
In this old repair shop, vines fall from the rotting roof to meet mossy concrete. Even though it had been dry for days, water dripped in from the roof to make permanent puddles between workstations. It was full of color and sound and industry and nature.

The nearest door brought me to what seemed to be a metal fabrication shop, although the vines that stretched across the workbenches and cabinets, up into the rafters. It was not the first time that I had to look around and ask myself, “Am I inside, or outside?” Through a door across the space, past the I saw a zig-zagging concrete ramp, like a city parking garage. As I neared it, the sound of running water beckoned me close to the strange structure, making the shadows seem colder.

The sound of water running in the distance.
The sound of water running in the distance.

When I reached the ramp, it became difficult to tell what was ground level. I heard a bus pass, and it seemed to be at the level I was standing, but I looked down the ramp to see a large and dimly lit space. From there, the sound of a stream bounced upward. Above me, sunlight washed down, almost reading the thick mud around my feet, which had apparently been washing down the ramp for decades.

Just as I was taking a step to move down the ramp, I heard a very familiar sound: the click of a camera shutter. Did someone just take a picture of me, I though, swinging around to the workshop door behind me. Seeing nobody there, no above or below me, I decided to move as quietly as possible upward.

Movement below. A laugh. Echoing like the water off the wall behind me.

I peered over the top of the ramp to see a boy photographing what I assume to be his girlfriend with the ramp I was standing on as a background. They did not notice me, even though the boy was facing me directly. Judging by his lens (it looked like a normal prime) I had just snuck into a picture with his girlfriend—won’t he be surprised later, I thought. Not knowing whether I wanted to abuse a Belgian with my preschool-level French, I sneaked upward.

Looking past the hoist room (left) toward Shaft No. 1, behind the concrete head frame built in the late 1940s. This shaft could haul equipment from ground level (below) to shop level, where the picture was taken.
Looking past the hoist room (left) toward Shaft No. 1, behind the concrete head frame built in the late 1940s. This shaft could haul equipment from ground level (below) to shop level, where the picture was taken.

One story above street level, the trees seemed sturdier, the grass more green, the bushes were thick and wild. In the middle of this industrial brownspace, encircling a reinforced concrete obelisk to the god of coal, nature was lusher than at ground level! Knowing a little about how mine shafts work from my adventures in Colorado and Michigan, I immediately found the hoist room: the heart of Cheratte.

On the left is the broken glass room that contains the controls for the cable spool, now gone, that sat in the metal shell on the right. The stairs led down to the hoisting engine itself. You can make out the slits where the cable ran up to the headframe tower through the gaping archway.
On the left is the broken glass room that contains the controls for the cable spool, now gone, that sat in the metal shell on the right. The stairs led down to the hoisting engine itself. You can make out the slits where the cable ran up to the headframe tower through the gaping archway.

This was the place where steel cable was extended and retracted through pulleys to move men, machines, and coal into and out of the mine. In the center of the room was a steel cone with an arch through the middle of it, where the spool of cable would sit, set into an engine—these are both gone today. It was when I looked through the slits where the cables travelled that I saw what so many others came to Cheratte to see…

While it looks like ground level, everything here is one story above the actual earth.
While it looks like ground level, everything here is one story above the actual earth.

It looked like a brick castle with a distinctly utilitarian edge, considering its smokestacks and pulleys. Pointing toward it was a rail bridge crossing the main road of the town and still bearing the name of the mine. The bridge went nowhere, and was cut off about 15 feet above the sidewalk below. Its only purpose seemed to point tourists to the castle in the distance, far behind the barbed wire. As I looked back and forth, I became obsessed with one idea: get to the top.

Where workers would sign documents and collect their pay.
Where workers would sign documents and collect their pay.

Quickly making my way through some of the outbuildings on my way to the main attraction, I ran across a few interesting rooms. Payroll was built like a bank, with bars over even interior windows. In a lobby where workers would seemingly wait in a curving line around a railing, little metal platforms were welded to allow them to complete paperwork while moving toward the service window.

The room where all of the miners would leave their lamps to be refilled, reconditioned, repaired, etc. when they were not in use underground.
The room where all of the miners would leave their lamps to be refilled, reconditioned, repaired, etc. when they were not in use underground.

Behind that was a long room with small metal racks, where workers would pick up their headlamp on the way to the shaft. Nearby, a silo of sorts topped with vented windows showed that, right below this spot, a big coal mine was probably flooded, along with a lot of mining equipment and more than a few bodies. Without wanting to think too much about the latter, I found a giant door that led into the tallest of the castle-like towers.

Shaft 1, around 1910.
Shaft 1, around 1910.

I was surprised to find that the building I was in was a mineshaft as well! It seemed dedicated to moving machinery and men, having long ago delegated the hard work of moving coal to the big headframe nearby. I would later find out that this shaft was the first, and it was retired as a working shaft sometime in the 1950s.

My feet found the stairs upward, and as I ascended my smile widened. I passed the white-tiled dry house rooms were miners would begin and end every shift. They would change their clothes, wash up if they needed, and interact with one another. Long concrete benches were crammed into the rooms with small numbered lockers built into the seats below. Above the lockers, on the back of the bench, were hooks for hanging mining clothes overnight, to let the sweat and groundwater soaked into them dry.

Cheratte's Dry Room, around 1907. This is one of the rooms near Shaft 1 that was converted to be a Dry Room, where workers would wash and change between shifts.

At the top of the abandoned castle tower mineshaft—I smirk as I write those words—was the hoisting motor. The giant electric motor and pulleys hoisted the mine elevators to and from the Cheratte Coal Mine deep below, first as the main shaft and later as an emergency exit for the workers.

Cheratte's Shaft No. 1 Hoist, 1907 One of the pair of motors that powered this mine shaft. In the 1950s, this shaft was designated a rescue shaft, and was only maintained for emergencies. One reason that Cheratte built Shaft 3 nearby was because these motors and infrastructure did not have the capacity that the giant mine below called for.

From the window, the whole town was laid out. I imagined a miner waving to his wife down the block, as she leaned out her kitchen window. I imagined the way the ground under the quiet Belgian burg must have vibrated when the mine was working. Hard work, yes, and dangerous—but how it must have been different when all of Cheratte was alive.

Leaving the mine—hopping back onto the sidewalk near the workshops and garages—I thought of what the neighbors must think when they see the bridge. Do they bless the peace, or curse it? As a visitor, I have to admit that I have no answer, but that I prefer the view from the top of a mineshaft than the bottom.

Algae grows where water flows/From the sawtooth roof/To the mines below/The sun climbs high/But is in no one's eyes/A wall alone crumbles/It was no suprise In the mine offices, hooks and a board with numbers was the system to keep track of who was in the mine and who was safe. On the left you can see one of the later air shafts for the mine below, which allowed for natural air exchange with the main production areas of the coal mine. That is to say, there were no fans blowing fresh air down below. The sound of water running in the distance. This is one of the rooms near Shaft 1 that was converted to be a Dry Room, where workers would wash and change between shifts. Looking at the headframe for Shaft 3 from the tower for Shaft 1. Below is the roof of the Dry House. It was hard to remind myself that these building have been abandoned longer than I've been alive. The mine is sandwiched between village townhomes. Looking through the dark door at Shaft 3, when my naked eyes could only make out a staircase lit dimly from above. A bridge crosses the main street of the village; one that goes nowhere. Ambiguity intended. Acros 100 in Pentax 67 A burned and rusted control panel in the corner of the new hoist room. Looking past the hoist room (left) toward Shaft No. 1, behind the concrete head frame built in the late 1940s. This shaft could haul equipment from ground level (below) to shop level, where the picture was taken. On the left is the broken glass room that contains the controls for the cable spool, now gone, that sat in the metal shell on the right. The stairs led down to the hoisting engine itself. You can make out the slits where the cable ran up to the headframe tower through the gaping archway. While it looks like ground level, everything here is one story above the actual earth. The room where all of the miners would leave their lamps to be refilled, reconditioned, repaired, etc. when they were not in use underground. From atop a concrete slap that seals the old path of Mine Shaft #3, I loop up into the hoisting room. In this old repair shop, vines fall from the rotting roof to meet mossy concrete. Even though it had been dry for days, water dripped in from the roof to make permanent puddles between workstations. It was full of color and sound and industry and nature. A place to turn mine carts into different areas of the shops. One leg of the headframe meets the hoist house. Two cranes are rusted in place. Parking strictly forbidden. A sign in front of Cheratte's former truck shops. Wide stairs between the ground, the mine shaft, and the dry house. Where workers would sign documents and collect their pay. Where workers' pay would be doled out and collected. One of the pair of motors that powered this mine shaft. In the 1950s, this shaft was designated a rescue shaft, and was only maintained for emergencies. One reason that Cheratte built Shaft 3 nearby was because these motors and infrastructure did not have the capacity that the giant mine below called for. From the catwalks below the hoisting motor in Shaft No. 1. Looking through skylights of the payroll office toward the Cheratte No.1's tower. This is where workers would wait in line to receive pay, surrounded by the mine workings. Looking through the an access panel at the hoist room for Shaft No. 3. The cable had long ago been scrapped, along with the motors to drive the pulleys. I still admire the workmanship on the spool's arching metal shell. Cheratte lives on in the shadow of its abandoned coal mine, although most of the shops are abandoned and many of the city's landmarks have fallen into disrepair. Like other Belgian mining towns, those who have stayed in the town have kept up their apartments, so much of the company-building duplexes and homes are in great condition. Across the walls of the brick repair shop, near where men and machine entered Shaft No. 3, vines, pipes, and graffiti battle unknowingly for visual prominence.

The post Hasard Cheratte
(Cheratte Mine)
Belgium
appeared first on SUBSTREET.


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