Museum Le Bois du Cazier in Charleroi

You're standing at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle, just outside Charleroi. Look up at those steel headframes. These tall towers once carried the cables that lowered cages full of miners and coal deep underground. Coal was mined here from 1822, with permission from King William I, back before Belgium even existed. The mine takes its name from Jean-Baptiste De Cazier, who owned the land for a while.