Abandoned Belgium

Beautiful, haunting photographs of abandoned places in Belgium. The ultimate visual reference in Belgian urban exploration.

These outstanding photographic reports aim to draw attention to the often dramatic fate of a country’s abandoned heritage and its frequently forgotten beauty. The locations featured all have their own stories to tell, in a variety of voices, but with one
shared theme: the fall from grace.

The old blast furnaces from the province of Liege, an old textile factory in West Flanders, or Europe’s first commodities exchange – a Gothic Revival gem in the province of Antwerp …
These architectural monuments have been left to weather the elements and pass into oblivion, offering a unique perspective on abandoned Belgium. At the threshold between life and death, and immortalised by Francis Meslet, these structures radiate a silence that speaks volumes. These pictures have extraordinary secrets to tell. Between 2010 and 2023, Francis Meslet travelled around Belgium looking for abandoned places – witnesses to history and the socio-economic changes that have shaped the country. What began as a way of documenting the neglect of industrial and urban monuments, quickly expanded to include other dispossessed places: factories, industrial wastelands, schools, churches, Roman baths,
swimming pools, theatres, mansions, castles, and hospitals, for example. His photography captures the grandeur and decadence of one of the oldest European nations.