Brussels' underground river will partially return to the surface after 150 years of hiding

Like many European cities, Brussels also has a river, but it has been buried since 1871 due to lack of sanitation, and authorities are now seeking to replace it with a new project aimed at discovering part of the Seine.

Home to the Grand Place that wowed Victor Hugo, the Belgian city boasts a diverse range of sights, from Gothic churches to its diverse urban murals to alleys dedicated to beer, however, unlike other European capitals, There is no river that can be crossed or skirted.

It is easy to imagine Paris and its Seine, or Rome and its Tiber, or Madrid and its Manzanares, but for Brussels it has only a navigable but artificial canal.

However, the city and more specifically, the Secretary of State for the Brussels-Capital Region, responsible for urban planning and heritage, Ans Persoons, has decided to start a project to start restoring Chene.

“They closed it at the end of the 19th century for sanitary reasons, but before that there was water all over the city center, they closed it all. Today we regret it, because it's nice to walk on the river in a city, even if we have a canal, it's not the same,” Persson told EFE. laments in reports to.

Between 1867 and 1871, Brussels was overcrowded and the river was completely closed for sanitary and urban planning reasons.And Senna was seen as the cause of all evils, especially contributing to the spread of cholera.

Thanks to the work of the treatment plants and the various treatments, the river now has the right conditions to see the sky again, or rather the clouds, as it passes through Brussels.

“Back then it was open sewers, where diseases spread, but now we have sewers, we control the water quality, we have all the medicines we need to prevent the spread of disease. So this is a completely different time, which will no longer create any health problems,” says the Secretary of State.

He also explains that in the northern part of the city, a few meters away from Brussels' bustling North Station, where urban conditions allow, a large number of buildings will be built, unlike in areas like the center of Brussels. No such action can be taken.

In the selected area, you will find various green areas that cross the neighborhood intermittently from north to south, surrounded by houses and offices of relatively recent construction. A vertebral organ.

The Cenne, which is 4 to 16 meters wide depending on the water level, aims to see the light 650 meters along its route, and work will begin in the first half of next year.

These actions will be part of a larger project with a budget of 40 million euros, which will aim to redevelop the area, without mentioning that its cost is “expensive”.

“Now it's a business district, but in the next 10 years we want to build more houses because it's going to be one of the neighborhoods that's going to change the most,” highlighted the political leader.

They also plant more The new park will have 550 trees and more than 20,000 square meters of green space.

The works, the details of the people, the scale and nature of the project will take a few years, but Brussels will wait patiently, as it has done for the 150 years since its river was buried.