Belgium July 2017 – Control Rooms and Churches Tour

Highlights From This Trip

• 3 Days
• 8 Locations Explored
• Quick Belgium Trip
• ~100 photographs

After a few days exploring the abandoned palaces and crypts of Portugal, I flew straight to Germany to meet a fellow photographer of decay. Somewhere between Faro and Bonn my bag decided to go on an adventure of its own, and I was left with only my camera bag, the clothes I was wearing and 3 days of exploring Belgium ahead of me. My tripod was in the missing bag, which could have been disastrous if my kind friend didn’t have a spare one to lend me for the trip. It seems that shorts are not advisable exploring attire; I will likely have a few scars from some of the seemingly vindictive Belgian vegetation!

Due to work commitments I have missed out on a lot of Belgium sites which have been open over the summer, so this was my chance to tackle the backlog!

A mixed bag of a trip, with some successful visits and some that have been sealed very recently. Nothing is as disheartening as missing out on that special place by only a few days! We visited several control rooms with glorious Art-Deco decoration and fantastic vintage details; always a favourite subject of mine to photograph. Finally visited Steampunk Commander, an abandoned control room where dials removed from the walls look like top hats on the heavy wooden central desk. Other highlights were an abandoned radio station (Radio Marie-José) and a satellite telecommunications centre (Allô Houston?, aka ET Phone Home 2). We were fortunate to visit two examples of nearly pristine Belgian churches, Cliffhangar Church and Eglise aux Milles Arches (not a thousand arches, but there were quite a few!).

A permission visit at the unique Maison et Toiles provided an interesting change of pace towards the end of the trip. This was the house of an artist and is filled with literally thousands of paintings. We spent several hours enjoying the artwork, and talking with the artists son. Hearing the stories behind the house, the residents and how it became abandoned several years ago. We listened intently to tales of how the artists work became more macabre in his final years, and the playfully posed nude women were gradually joined by dancing skeletons and skulls. You can piece together a lot by visiting an abandoned house, but these first-hand stories really brought the brush strokes to life before our eyes.

Read about our adventures in Portugal the week before I went to Belgium: Portugal July 2017 – Palaces and Crypts Tour (blog post opens in new window).