History
The modernist leisure centre of Amicale Solvay is located in Couillet, in Belgian city of Charleroi and was built to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary. It takes its name from Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) and his brother Alfred who chose Couillet as the location to set up their chemicals factory in 1865, due to the presence of raw materials and the proximity of soda consumers, metallurgy and glassmaking. Construction was started in 1937 and completed in the final quarter of 1938 to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary, for use by their workers. Designed by architect Eléazar Cozac (1893-1977), it was built to house a swimming pool, a 700-seater theatre, a casino, a restaurant and provide other multi-purpose spaces. It is one of a pair of identical buildings that were built, the other being at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre. In 1998 the Building was left abandoned and then 2 years later was listed under Wallon Heritage. Reports online state that if the building is to maintain its current state or get worse and no renovations is implemented, It will be demolished.
Explore
After arriving at the airport just outside the city and checking in to one of the worst hotels you'd ever seen, we made the trip to the station outside Amicale Solvay, which despite a semi-frequent service is in worse condition than many mothballed British stations, This seemed to be common throughout the city. The property is proper on the corner of a junction on the side of a hill which gave slight elevation over the city, having never explored in Belgium before we decided to take extra care when entering but considering how open everything seemed to be here it wasn't hard. Inside the building is extremely vandalised but some stunning features still remain.
The modernist leisure centre of Amicale Solvay is located in Couillet, in Belgian city of Charleroi and was built to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary. It takes its name from Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) and his brother Alfred who chose Couillet as the location to set up their chemicals factory in 1865, due to the presence of raw materials and the proximity of soda consumers, metallurgy and glassmaking. Construction was started in 1937 and completed in the final quarter of 1938 to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary, for use by their workers. Designed by architect Eléazar Cozac (1893-1977), it was built to house a swimming pool, a 700-seater theatre, a casino, a restaurant and provide other multi-purpose spaces. It is one of a pair of identical buildings that were built, the other being at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre. In 1998 the Building was left abandoned and then 2 years later was listed under Wallon Heritage. Reports online state that if the building is to maintain its current state or get worse and no renovations is implemented, It will be demolished.
Explore
After arriving at the airport just outside the city and checking in to one of the worst hotels you'd ever seen, we made the trip to the station outside Amicale Solvay, which despite a semi-frequent service is in worse condition than many mothballed British stations, This seemed to be common throughout the city. The property is proper on the corner of a junction on the side of a hill which gave slight elevation over the city, having never explored in Belgium before we decided to take extra care when entering but considering how open everything seemed to be here it wasn't hard. Inside the building is extremely vandalised but some stunning features still remain.
