Bales - Nyrstar

Today's Nyrstar used to be Vieille Montagne's zinc and non-ferrous plant.

From the parking lot it is worthwhile to take a look at the neighborhood behind. To do this, drive straight ahead from the parking lot, keeping the canal to your left. This way you automatically enter what used to be the cité of Vieille Montagne.

Many homes here have been built and renovated in the image and standard of contemporary living and living standards. Here and there you can still see houses that still have some authenticity, so that we can imagine ourselves in the year 1971, at the time of the strike at Vieille Montagne.

If you are curious about what happened in and around the factory for the workers, you should probably take the trouble to watch the film ' Vegetables from Balen' on a drizzly day. By the way, that film is based on an originally engaged play by writer Walter Van Den Broeck. We certainly want to mention him here, because he mainly wrote about the Kempen people.

If you want to shift your thoughts to the life of a child in one of the Kempen cités after this ride, it is best to google Walter Van Den Broeck and his book ' Letter to Boudewijn'. In it, he meticulously describes the interior of the worker's cottage in which he lived as a child. That was in the Olen cité, which we will drive past later.

Drive back to the bridge and Nyrstar factory, and this time choose to leave the canal to your right.

Through the trees and greenery to your right you can see how big the factory site was and still is. Note that throughout this ride, nature reserve and industrial area alternate continuously.

Linx+