Charbonnage du Hasard de Cheratte
This old coal mine, named Charbonnage du Hasard, operated until 1977. It was the main colliery of the ‘Société Anonyme des Charbonnages du Hasard’ with four shafts. The mine is located in Cheratte, a section of the Belgian town of Visé in the Liège province in Wallonia. The site was eventually partly demolished in 2020. There are plans to reconvert the site and protect the remaining buildings.
The first mine shaft in Cheratte was dug in 1850. It was used to extract coal, also called “dice coal.” In 1877, the mine closed after a serious accident. The buildings were demolished. But 30 years later, in 1907, the mine reopened.
The main building is a large brick tower. This is a typical Malakoff tower, built in 1907. The name comes from a building in Sevastopol, Russia. In the German Ruhr area, many towers have the same look. The tower looks like a castle, but it was not. It was a place with changing rooms and showers for the miners.
The tallest tower held Shaft 1. Later, this shaft became an emergency exit. In 1920, the Beer de Jemeppe company built a washhouse. In 1927, a second mine shaft opened. This one had a metal headframe. Between 1927 and 1947, workers built a third shaft. This one is the deepest—480 meters down into the ground.
Left Behind in One Day
Hasard Cheratte closed in a strange way. One day, the miners came to work. But the gate was locked. They had to go home again. The mine shut down that same day. When it closed on 31 October 1977, it employed more than 600 miners.
Inside, many things stayed the same for years. A newspaper from 1976 still lies on the floor. It talks about Viking I, the rocket that sent the first pictures of Mars. Old lockers still have coats and hats inside. It feels like the miner might return any moment to grab them. But nothing has moved for over 25 years.
The site was partly demolished in 2019. Some buildings were saved and are waiting for a new use. I visited Hasard Cheratte in 2005, 2007, and again in 2025. It is one of the most special coal mines I have seen.
