Seven generations have followed each other at Bois du Luc, some others came from far horizons. Since 1685 coal-mining has drawn men, women and children to the pits. Pits which swallowed up men and spat up coal. Coal to fuel locomotives, family hearths and numerous industries.

Bois-du-Luc, which is listed as an unusual Heritage site in Wallonia, and is a candidate for inclusion in the Unesco World Heritage List, was fashioned at the dawn of the 19th Century and plunges you into the atmosphere of the daily life of the workers and employees. From the underground galleries to the tops of the slag heaps you can sense the cog-wheels of paternalism. The offices, the pay room, the St. Emmanuel Pit and the workshops where the wood and metal were worked, house the Works, protected by a fortress of mediaeval appearance.

Opposite this fortress is an estate dreamed up, designed and built by the management, away from the urban turmoil. The workers lived (more than 166 houses), ate (grocers, butchers, brewery) amused themselves (park, bandstand, halls for parties, café and a long list of leisure activities financed by the Coalmine), were cared for (hospice and hospital), prayed (St. Barbe church), learnt (schools) in this estate woven by capitalist selfishness which you can sense, starting with the slag heaps - pyramids of labour.