The Fish Ladder

In the fifteenth century, the Herental wool and cloth industry flourished enormously. For the production, the Herental sheet makers made grateful use of the proximity of the Kleine Nete and its side arms.

After all, water was indispensable for the manufacture of the fine sheet, but was also used to generate energy with water mills. The weir on the Kleine Nete, a few dozen meters upstream from Le Paige Castle, serves not to generate energy but to control the decay of the river.

The weir prevents fish from swimming upstream to spawn. To remove this obstacle, a curious construction has been built: a diversion has been placed in the river at the level of the weir. The water flows down a series of wide low stairs. Research has shown that more than twenty species of fish use this road.

Eddy&Rita