Two silent pithead winding gears tower over the redbrick gable of the Bois de Cazier colliery near Charleroi. The colliery has now ceased operations but in August 1956 it was the site of one of the most tragic accidents in European mining history; a disaster that killed a total of 262 workers. A major section of the colliery museum erected on the site is devoted to the accident. Surrounding this section are the miners’ changing rooms, washrooms and pithead equipment that give visitors a good idea of the region whose coal resources were once used to fire iron and steel works, glassworks and chemical factories.