Heavy Metal

Exploring the Wastelands of Cockerill-Sambre in Liège, Belgium

The Cockerill name has been part of Liège's industrial history since the early 19th century. John Cockerill established his industrial complex in Seraing in 1817, which included ironworks and later became an important part of the region's steel industry.

Cockerill-Sambre was formed in 1981 through the merger of Cockerill and Hainaut-Sambre, bringing together major parts of the steel industry in the Liège and Charleroi regions. By then the Belgian steel industry was already struggling. The crisis of the 1970s and 1980s led to restructuring, closures and large numbers of job losses.

Cockerill-Sambre was taken over by Usinor in 1998, which became part of Arcelor and later ArcelorMittal. The steel industry in Liège continued to decline over the following years. The last major operations at the Ougrée site were shut down in 2014, when the coking plant closed.

My first visit to this place was sometime in 2020. My buddy and I had gone on a little road trip through Belgium with a tent, although we ended up spending the night in hammocks inside a nearby abandoned military base.

On our first visit, we arrived early in the morning. The sun was rising, it was hazy and no one was out there. I remember that we were able to just walk right through the bars of the main gate because we were both so skinny lol.

We walked straight past the cameras, but nobody seemed to care or show up. We quickly realized why. This place was simply too big for someone to come looking for us.

On the next day, we explored the place again and were excited to see a lot of people there. No guards, just people like us having fun exploring. There were graffiti artists, climbers, and even a group of guys doing a VR drone race.

One of the things that really surprised me was just how massive the whole site was. It didn't feel like exploring one abandoned factory. It felt more like walking through an entire industrial wasteland.

On my last visit, around 2024, I sadly realized that the whole place had been torn down, except from the blast furnace (Haut-Fourneau B).

If you want to explore more of Belgium's abandoned industrial sites, check out my visit to the abandoned cooling tower in Charleroi.