Hasard Cheratte was a Coal Mine with 4 mine shafts. It was the most important "Société anonyme des Charbonnages du Hasard" and it is located in Cheratte (surprise) which is somewhere on the eastern side of Belgium.
It was first build in 1848 with 2 shafts of 170M and 250M. In 1877 there was a water-breach which caused several mine-workers to drown and all activities were shut-down. The mine shifted from owner on 1905 and the activities were continued. The third shaft was made in 1907. It would contain the first electric mine-shaft elevator in Belgium. The fourth shaft was added in 1923.
Around 1974 there worked around 1500 mine-workers and around the closure of the mine in 1977 there were still aprox. 590 mine-workers left. It is abandoned ever since. From what I could find out they're going to demolish the buildings this year and start the soil remediation of the area.
I hope you enjoy the photo's that I took during my visit in january 2012.
First I'll show the exterior of the buildings :
)
This was the main building. Those gothic towers looked amazing.
Further up the site was a very large tower which was shaft nr. 3
This was a sign that went over the road next to the site.
Now I'll show what we saw inside the buildings :
Going up the stairs of the big tower.
This was the view that we had once we reached the top
I hope that you've enjoyed the post. Feel free to reply, resteem and follow me. :)