THE so-called “ugliest city in the world” is just an hour’s flight from London, full of abandoned buildings and was home to a notorious serial killer pedophile.
With boarded up houses and abandoned industrial installations, Charleroi in Belgium was once the heart of the country’s coal industry.
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But today the factories are abandoned and the scars of the mining industry still plague the city.
Speak with the sun onlineartist Nicolas Buissart, who gives tours of his hometown, explained why he loves its rugged charm.
In 2009, de Volkskrant readers labeled Charleroi as the “ugliest city in the universe”.
Nicolas said that when the article came out, it was the “perfect marketing opportunity” for Charleroi.
“If you’re seen as an ugly city, you might as well be ‘the ugliest,'” he explained.
He made a website with his friend advertising the “Charleroi adventure“, and it wasn’t long before hundreds of people signed up for their tours.
Nicolas says that the local authorities and tourist groups initially hated him, but have gradually embraced them.
“At first, the authorities blamed me for spreading Charleroi’s image as a depressing place,” he said.
But over time, official guides in the city have started offering their own visits to abandoned factories and even making maps of the ruins for themselves.
“My tours start in the city center,” Nicolas explained, “but they differ depending on the composition of the group.”
Nicolas’ tour groups can range from school children to bachelor parties to members of the European Commission.
“I explain the history of Charleroi and then we move to the factories,” he said. “I have keys to some abandoned buildings, so I’m showing people around.
“When the weather is good we can climb a slag heap – that’s the waste material produced from mining. Then there are bars we can visit.
“For larger groups we can barbecue by the river.”
If you’re seen as an ugly city, you might as well be ‘the ugliest’
Nicolas Buissart
Belgium was industrialized after England, not long after it became independent in 1830.
The south of the country, in Wallonia around Charleroi, experienced a coal boom and became the country’s industrial powerhouse, earning it the nickname the “Black Country”.
But after the 1950s, when coal power declined and oil became the dominant fuel, Belgian industry moved to the north of the country and the North Sea coast.
In a pattern repeated in much of the UK, US and France, parts of Belgium went into major industrial decline.
Charleroi has become notorious in recent decades for crime, deprivation and general decline.
Recent statistics show rampant unemployment rates of 20 percent in Charleroi, compared to about 6 percent across the country.
Just 65 kilometers south of Brussels, the city of 200,000 inhabitants is characterized by gloomy residential complexes and shuttered factories.
It is also home to “the ugliest road in Belgium”, the meandering, gray Rue de Mons.
Cultural anthropologist and war photographer Teun Voeten wrote in a position on Charleroi: “Drug users openly inject heroin into vacant buildings, while prostitutes practice under flyovers on street corners just blocks from City Hall.”
He continued, “Two of the five subway lines designed to serve the city were never completed. Empty ghost stations now serve as stomping grounds for vandals, self-proclaimed graffiti artists and junkies.”
‘HOUSE OF TERROR’
In recent years, the city has also struggled to shake off associations with one of its most famous former residents – the Belgian serial killer and pedophile Marc Dutroux.
He was arrested in 1996 for the kidnapping, rape and torture of six girls, ages eight to 19, four of whom died.
In June, his former “House of Horrors” in Charleroi was finally demolished to make way for a public garden.
The dilapidated, shuttered terraced house was once a feature of Nicolas’ city safaris through his hometown.
Does Nicolas worry that his tours could make Charleroi too trendy and gentrified, taking away the feature that makes it unique?
“Amsterdam was very cool in the 90s,” he said. “Now the people who live there have aged and the city has become more of a museum.
“A lot of the ‘cool’ people have moved to Brussels, which in the past was considered boring, but is a lot cheaper than Amsterdam and Paris.”
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He added that many of the artists who now come to Charleroi still live in Brussels, as the city still feels too rough to live there.
It wasn’t that Charleroi was just “ugly”, Nicolas explained, but that it was “boring”.
The same socialist political party had ruled the city for 40 years and the middle and upper classes had moved to the suburbs.
People didn’t want to go back to the city center anymore.
Efforts have been made in recent years to clean up some of the city’s most run-down areas.
Local authorities have built cycle routes along the former factories, while an old industrial complex has been transformed into a museum and educational center.
Nicolas urges Britten to visit Charleroi and give his rugged city a chance.
“Charleroi is in the middle of everything,” he said. “From Brussels and Ghent it is only an hour by train.
And has some advice for all Brits looking to make the trip to Charleroi for a holiday with a difference.
“We have a crazy nightclub in an abandoned factory called ‘Rockerill’,” he said. “If you like to party, come to Charleroi.”