Industrial heritage is trendy. Factory buildings, boiler rooms, machine rooms and warehouses are being repurposed nowadays. Despite such success stories, quite a few buildings are still being demolished. The preservation of industrial sites is often more sensitive and problematic than that of churches, castles or town houses. The value of a factory is not always clear from the building’s aesthetic or architectural characteristics. It reveals itself subtly in the stories told by those who used to work there, in the products that were manufactured between the brick walls and cast-iron columns, and in the oil stains that serve as silent witnesses on the worn-out floors.
With 'Cathedrals of Industry', the Museum of Industry developed a brand new cycling route along these gigantic gems from Ghent's glorious industrial past.
