Charleroi is a city and a municipality of
Wallonia, located in the
provinceBelgium is divided into three regions, two of them are subdivided into five provinces each.The division into provinces is fixed by Article 5 of the Belgian Constitution...
of Hainaut,
BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The
metropolitan areaNational statistics differ between five Metropolitan areas in Belgium. These five metropolitan areas are also covered by Eurostat statistics as separate Larger Urban Zones .- Metropolitan areas :...
, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1462 square kilometres (564.5 sq mi) and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as the fourth most populous in Belgium. The inhabitants are called
Carolorégiens or simply
Carolos.
Geography
The municipality of Charleroi straddles both banks of the river
SambreThe Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...
in an area marked by industrial activities (
coal miningThe goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
and steel industry): the so-called
Pays NoirThe Pays Noir refers to a region of Belgium, centered on Charleroi in the province of Hainaut in Wallonia so named for the geological presence of coal...
("black country"), part of the larger
sillon industrielThe sillon industriel is the former industrial backbone of Wallonia and thus of Belgium. It runs across Wallonia, passing from Dour, in Borinage, in the west, to Verviers in the east, through Mons, La Louvière, Charleroi, Namur, Huy, and Liège, following the valleys of the rivers Haine, Sambre,...
. Although most of the factories have closed since the 1950s, the landscape remains dotted with spoil tips and old industrial buildings.
Charleroi lies around 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) south of
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
The municipality comprises:
- I. the central city of Charleroi
|
and the following former municipalities, merged into Charleroi in 1977:
- II. Dampremy
Dampremy is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
- III. Lodelinsart
Lodelinsart is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
- IV. Gilly
Gilly is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977. It houses the base of Fédération des Patros, a youth organisation...
- V. Montignies-sur-Sambre
Montignies-sur-Sambre is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
- VI. Couillet
- VII. Marcinelle
Marcinelle is a Walloon town in the Belgian province of Hainaut, it is currently a municipality within the Charleroi borders. Until 1977, the town was a municipality of its own....
- VIII. Mont-sur-Marchienne
Mont-sur-Marchienne is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
|
IX. Marchienne-au-Pont Marchienne-au-Pont is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merge of the communes in 1977, when it had a population of 17,000.-Sights:...
X. Monceau-sur-SambreMonceau-sur-Sambre is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977.thumb|left|the castle |300px|...
XI. GoutrouxGoutroux is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
XII. RouxRoux is a small town in the Hainaut province of Belgium. In 1976 it was incorporated into the larger municipality of Charleroi....
XIII. JumetJumet is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
XIV. GosseliesGosselies is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977. Gosselies is the home for the headquarters of Caterpillar Belgium, and Solar Turbines Europe....
XV. RansartRansart is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977....
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Neighbouring :
- a. Les Bons Villers
Les Bons Villers is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 8,860 inhabitants. The total area is 42.55 km², giving a population density of 208 inhabitants per km²....
- b. Fleurus
Fleurus is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Fleurus had a total population of 22,221. The total area is which gives a population density of 375 inhabitants per km²...
- c. Châtelet
Châtelet is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, on the river Sambre. As of January 1, 2006, Châtelet had a total population of 35,621. The total area of the municipality is 27.03 km² which gives a population density of 1,318 inhabitants per km². It is composed of...
- d. Gerpinnes
Gerpinnes is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 12,030 inhabitants. The total area is 47.10 km², giving a population density of 255 inhabitants per km²....
- e. Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes
Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes had a total population of 13,364. The land area is , which gives a population density of 293 inhabitants per km²....
|
f. Montigny-le-Tilleul Montigny-le-Tilleul is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Montigny-le-Tilleul had a total population of 10,205. The total area is 15.10 km² which gives a population density of 676 inhabitants per km².-Sights:...
g. Fontaine-l'ÉvêqueFontaine-l'Évêque is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Fontaine-l'Évêque had a total population of 16,687. The total area is 28.41 km² which gives a population density of 587 inhabitants per km²....
h. CourcellesCourcelles is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. As of January 1, 2006 Courcelles had a total population of 29,626. The total area is 44.24 km² which gives a population density of 670 inhabitants per km²....
i. Pont-à-CellesPont-à-Celles is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Pont-à-Celles had a total population of 16,292...
|
Origins
The Charleroi area was already settled in the Prehistoric period, with traces of metallurgical and commercial activities along the
SambreThe Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...
. Several public buildings, temples and villas were built in that area in the
RomanAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
period. Burying places, with jewels and weapons, were also found. The first written mention of a place called Charnoy dates from a 9th-century offering in the
LobbesLobbes is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Lobbes had a total population of 5,499. The total area is 32.08 km² which gives a population density of 171 inhabitants per km²....
abbey, which lists various neighbouring towns and related
titheA tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
duties. During the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Charnoy was just one of the many small hamlets in the area, with no more than about 50 inhabitants, part of the County of Namur.
Foundation
The history of the city of Charleroi starts in 1666. In the spring of that year,
Francisco Castel RodrigoFrancisco de Moura y Melo, 3rd Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, , was a Spanish political figure.Francisco de Moura was the son of Emmanuel de Moura, who had been Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1644 and 1647, and of Leonor de Melo...
, Governor of the Netherlands at the service of the five-year-old
Charles II of SpainCharles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
, expropriated the area from the local lords to build a fortress near the Sambre. In September of that same year, the name Charnoy was officially replaced by that of the newly founded city of Charles-Roy (King Charles), so named in honour of Charles II. The
chronogramA chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals, stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words chronos and gramma . In the pure chronogram each word contains a numeral, the natural chronogram...
F
VN
DAT
VR
CARO
LOREG
IVM (MLCDVVVI), can be found in the register of the parish of Charnoy for the year 1666. A year later, Louis XIV’s armies under the command of Turenne besieged the unfinished fortress.
VaubanSébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...
completed the fortification work; the future city was granted its privileges; a bridge was built over the river; and free land was distributed to the inhabitants.
From 1666 to the Belgian Revolution
Shortly after its foundation, the new city was in turn besieged by the Dutch, ceded to the Spanish in 1678 (Treaty of Nijmegen), taken by the French in 1693, ceded again to the Spanish in 1698 (Treaty of Rijswijk), then taken by the French, the Dutch, and the Austrians in 1714 (
Treaty of BadenThe Treaty of Baden was the treaty that ended hostilities between France and the Holy Roman Empire, who had been at war since the start of the War of the Spanish Succession. It was signed on 7 September 1714 in Baden, Switzerland and complemented the Treaty of Utrecht, and the Treaty of Rastatt by...
). The
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Prince of ContiThe title of Prince of Conti was a French noble title, assumed by a cadet branch of the house of Bourbon-Condé. It was taken from Conty, a small town of northern France, c. 35 km southwest of Amiens, which came into the Condé family by the marriage of Louis of Bourbon, first prince of Condé,...
took the city again in 1745, but it was ceded back to
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1748, starting a period of prosperity under
Joseph IIJoseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
. The glass, steel and coal industries, which had already sprung up a century earlier, could now flourish.
Trouble started again in 1790, year of the civil uprising that eventually led to the
United States of BelgiumThe United States of Belgium, part of Brabant.In October, he invaded Brabant and captured Turnhout, defeating the Austrians in the Battle of Turnhout on October 27. Ghent was taken on November 13, and on November 17 the imperial regents Albert of Saxony and Archduchess Maria Christina fled Brussels...
. The Austrians occupied the city, were forced out by the French after the
Battle of JemappesThe Battle of Jemappes took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Belgium, near Mons. General Charles François Dumouriez, in command of the French Revolutionary Army, defeated the greatly outnumbered Austrian army of Field Marshal Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and his second-in-command...
on November 6, 1792, but took it back again four months later. On June 12, 1794, the French revolutionary
Army of Sambre-et-MeuseThe Army of Sambre-et-Meuse is the best known of the armies of the French Revolution. It was formed on 29 June 1794 by combining three forces: the Army of the Ardennes, the left wing of the Army of Moselle, and the right wing of the Army of the North. It had a brief but celebrated existence...
under the command of
Jean-Baptiste JourdanJean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Comte Jourdan , enlisted as a private in the French royal army and rose to command armies during the French Revolutionary Wars. Emperor Napoleon I of France named him a Marshal of France in 1804 and he also fought in the Napoleonic Wars. After 1815, he became reconciled...
, invested Charleroi and won a decisive victory in the ensuing
Battle of FleurusIn the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794, the army of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan faced the Coalition Army commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg in the most decisive battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries during the French Revolutionary Wars...
. The city took the revolutionary name of Libre-sur-Sambre until 1800. Napoleon stayed in Charleroi for a couple of days in June 1815, just before the
Battle of WaterlooThe Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
. After his defeat, the whole area was annexed to the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and new walls were built around the city.
1830 to present
The
Belgian RevolutionThe Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
of 1830 gave the area its freedom from the Netherlands and ushered in a new era of prosperity, still based mostly on glass, metallurgy, and coal, hence the area’s name of “Black Country” (in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Pays Noir). After the
Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, Charleroi benefited from the increased use of coke in the metallurgical industry. People from all over
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
were attracted by the economic opportunities and the population grew rapidly.
Strikes, riots, exile, rise of the labour radicalism
Charleroi was since the 1850s and 1860s after the
Industrial revolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
in
Wallonia one of the most important places where the strikes broke out. In 1886, twelve strikers were killed by the Belgian army in
RouxRoux is a small town in the Hainaut province of Belgium. In 1976 it was incorporated into the larger municipality of Charleroi....
. In the 1880s, miners in Hainaut were recruited by
Dominion Coal Company in
Glace Bay, Nova ScotiaGlace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton....
. These miners
were anxious to flee the repression following bloody strikes and riots in LiègeLiège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
and Charleroi during the
Walloon Jacquerie of 1886The Walloon jacquerie of 1886 was a working class jacquerie of a bloody spring as many Walloon scholars are calling it This violent upheaval of the Belgian, especially Walloon proletariat, caused a profound psychological shock in an atmosphere of fear of an inevitable and explosive social...
. Walloon miners from Charleroi also emigrated to
AlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
. The workingmen in Charleroi had always an important role in the
Belgian general strikesThe Belgian general strikes were a peculiar phenomenon of the social, economical and political life in Belgium due to huge concentrations of workers in the Belgian Cities as Ghent, Antwerp, mainly in Wallonia, in Charleroi and Liège but also in other places in the Walloon Sillon industriel, e.g....
and particularly during the Belgian general strike of 1936, the
General strike against Leopold III of BelgiumThe Royal Question refers to the 1950 political conflict surrounding the question whether King Leopold III should return to Belgium after World War II. A referendum was organised, in which the majority voted in favour of his return...
and the
1960-1961 Winter General Strike1960–1961 Winter General Strike was the most important strike of the 20th century in Belgium and was called the Strike of the Century. Its triggering factor was Eyskens' government introducing a number of austerity policies under the general name Loi unique...
.
World War I and World War II
By 1871, the fortified walls around the city were completely torn down.
Heavy fighting took place in
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
because of the city’s strategic location on the Sambre. After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Charleroi witnessed a general decline of its heavy industry. Following the merger with several surrounding municipalities in 1977, the city is today the largest city in
Wallonia and the fourth largest in Belgium.
Politics
The
Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS)The Socialist Party is a Francophone social-democratic political party in Belgium. As of the 2010 elections, it is the second largest party in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the largest Francophone party...
has had a stronghold in Charleroi for some time. However, in October 2006, PS mayor
Jacques Van GompelJacques Van Gompel is a Belgian politician for the Socialist Party .-Political career:* 1970-1976 Councilman in Gilly, presently a subdivision of Charleroi* 1979-1983 Councilman in Charleroi...
was jailed on fraud and forgery charges. Léon Casaert, also of the PS, became the new mayor, with a PS, MR, cdH majority. The MR stepped down from the coalition just before the 2007 general election, citing official charges of corruption levelled against a PS alderman in Charleroi. After the
2007 general electionThe 2007 Belgian general election took place on Sunday 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Chamber of Representatives and Senate.Eligible voters were Belgian citizens 18 years and older...
, the PS put its local party office under full confinement, with the city executive resigning. Mayor Casaert was charged with fraud on June 18, 2007, but will only step down after a new city executive has been formed.
In April 2010, the director of technical services of Charleroi, Henri Stassens, was convicted in court of fraud and corruption *
http://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/le-directeur-des-services-techniques-de-charleroi-inculpe-pour-fraude-210317
Municipal elections
| Party |
2000 The Belgian provincial and municipal elections, 2000 took place on Sunday October 8, 2000. The electors elected the municipal counsellors of 589 cities and towns as well as the ten provincial councils.City and provincial councillors were elected to a six year term...
(%) |
2006The Belgian provincial and municipal elections, 2006 took place on Sunday 8 October 2006. The electors have elected the municipal counsellors of 589 cities and towns as well as the ten provincial councils...
(%) |
Socialist PartyThe Socialist Party is a Francophone social-democratic political party in Belgium. As of the 2010 elections, it is the second largest party in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the largest Francophone party...
(Parti Socialiste) |
51.4 |
38.4 |
Reformist MovementThe Reformist Movement is a French-speaking liberal political party in Belgium. The party was in coalition as part of the Leterme II Government, and was also part of the governing coalition in the Walloon Region and Brussels-Capital Region until the 2004 regional elections...
(Mouvement Réformateur) |
16.1 |
24.6 |
Humanist Democratic CentreThe Humanist Democratic Centre is a Francophone Christian democratic political party in Belgium. The cdH currently participates in the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, the Government of the French Community and the Walloon Government.- History :...
(Centre Démocrate Humaniste) |
9.6 |
14.4 |
National FrontThe National Front is a francophone Belgian far-right political party. The party's ideology advocates a strong unitary Belgian nationalism and is strongly against immigration.The party's acting leader is Patrick Cocriamont....
(Front National) |
6.9 |
9.5 |
EcoloEcolo is a French-speaking Belgian green political party in Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Community of Belgium...
|
11.4 |
8.1 |
Economy
The municipality contains an industrial area, iron and steel industry, glassworks, chemicals, and electrical engineering. Charleroi is in the center of a coal basin, called
Pays noirThe Pays Noir refers to a region of Belgium, centered on Charleroi in the province of Hainaut in Wallonia so named for the geological presence of coal...
. Many
slag heapA spoil tip is a pile built of accumulated spoil - the overburden removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are generally composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone and various other residues...
s still surround the city.
DupuisÉditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
is a publisher of
Franco-Belgian comicsFranco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
, located in Marcinelle.
Crime
Charleroi was notorious for violent crimes during the 90's.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/05/world/charleroi-journal-a-rust-belt-city-s-mean-streets-keep-their-edge.html?pagewanted=1
Marc DutrouxMarc Dutroux is a Belgian serial killer and child molester, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 and 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. He was also convicted of having killed a suspected former accomplice, Bernard Weinstein,...
, nicknamed "The Monster from Charleroi" actually lived in
MarcinelleMarcinelle is a Walloon town in the Belgian province of Hainaut, it is currently a municipality within the Charleroi borders. Until 1977, the town was a municipality of its own....
a municipality within the Charleroi borders.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/world/belgian-faces-trial-at-last-in-sex-killings.html?pagewanted=1
Landmarks
- The belfry
The Belfries of Belgium and France is a group of 56 historical buildings designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, in recognition of an architectural manifestation of emerging civic independence in historic Flanders and neighbouring regions from feudal and religious influences, leading to a...
is included in the list of World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s.
- The Maison Dorée was built in 1899 by the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
architect Alfred Frère. The name of this masterpiece comes from the golden sgraffitiSgraffito is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colors to a moistened surface, or in ceramics, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive layers of contrasting slip, and then in either case scratching so as to produce an...
that adorn the façadeA facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
.
- The city is also the home of several museums (fine arts, glass, photography, ...)
Sports
Charleroi has many Belgian champion teams in various sports.
Spirou CharleroiSpirou Charleroi, also known as Spirou Basket, is a Belgian professional basketball club that is located in Charleroi, Belgium. The club competes in the top Belgian League...
in
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
has been 8 times winner of the
Basketball League BelgiumThe Basketball League Belgium , also known as the Ligue Ethias or Ethias League, is the highest professional basketball league in Belgium.-Teams:* Antwerp Giants* Belgacom Liège Basket* Dexia Mons-Hainaut* Generali Okapi Aalstar...
.
La Villette CharleroiRoyal Villette Charleroi is a Belgian table tennis club, the most successful club in the European Champions League with 5 titles....
in
table tennisTable tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
is the most successful club in the
Champions LeagueEuropean Champions League is the seasonal table tennis competition for the highest ranked European club teams and is regarded as the most important international club competition in Europe. It is organised by the European Table Tennis Union and replaced the European Club Cup of Champions , the...
ever with 5 titles and has been Belgian champion multiple times.
Action 21 Charleroi-History:The club was founded in 1999, Charleroi Garenne and FCS Sambreville merged in Action 21 Charleroi.- Squad 2009/2010 :- National :*9 Division 1: 99/00, 00/01, 01/02, 02/03, 03/04, 04/05, 05/06, 07/08, 08/09....
in
futsalFutsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...
has won 1
UEFA Futsal CupThe UEFA Futsal Cup is an annual futsal competition for European club teams. It was founded in 2001–02, replacing the Futsal European Clubs Championship, a former competition never recognized as official, despite their 15 editions. The final of the 1st edition was disputed as a single game in...
and 9
Belgian Division 1Division 1 is the premier professional futsal league in Belgium. It was founded in 1968. The league which is played under UEFA rules, currently consists of 14 teams...
titles. In
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
,
R Charleroi SCSporting du Pays de Charleroi is a Belgian football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League and their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football has started in the 1985–86 season...
and
ROC CharleroiRoyal Olympic Club de Charleroi-Marchienne is a Belgian association football club from the city of Charleroi, Hainaut. As of 2010, they play in Belgian Third Division B.-History:...
have finished once second in the Belgian First Division.
Air
The Brussels South Charleroi Airport in
GosseliesGosselies is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merger of the communes in 1977. Gosselies is the home for the headquarters of Caterpillar Belgium, and Solar Turbines Europe....
, 7 km north of the centre, opened in 1919 as a flight school. Later, it housed a factory building
Fairey-People:*Charles Richard Fairey, British aircraft manufacturer*Francis Fairey, , Canadian politician,*Jim Fairey, outfielder*Shepard Fairey, American artist-Companies:*Fairey Aviation Company, British aircraft company...
aircraft under licence.
Gosselies is now used as an alternate airport for
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. Low-cost carrier
RyanairRyanair is an Irish low-cost airline. Its head office is at Dublin Airport and its primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport....
is the largest airline, along with flights by
Wizz AirWizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Kft. is a Hungarian low-cost airline with headquarters in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, Hungary. The airline typically uses secondary airports serving many cities across Europe.- History :The airline was...
,
Jet4youJet4you is a low-cost airline based in Casablanca, Morocco. It operates services between Moroccan cities and destinations in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland and Italy. Its main base is Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport, with focus cities at Agadir, Nador, Paris and...
and (in the summer only)
On AirOn Air is an airline based in Pescara, Italy. It started operations in 2006 and operates international services within Europe using wet leased aircraft, mainly from Hamburg International, Blue Air, Avanti Air and Ukraine International...
. Seasonal holiday charters also use the airport.
A new terminal opened in January 2008, replacing a much smaller building which had exceeded capacity.
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
is 47 kilometres (29.2 mi) north of Charleroi Airport.
Rail
Charleroi is connected by train to other Belgian major cities through the main
Charleroi-South railway stationThe Charleroi-South pre-metro station, simply known as South on network maps, was opened in 1976. Along with Vilette, Sud was the first station to enter service on the Charleroi pre-metro...
. The city also has a secondary railway station,
Charleroi-WestWest is a Charleroi Metro station, located at the western end of Charleroi downtown, in fare zone 1. The station is accessible through three distinct street entrances leading to a mezzanine, giving access to the central platform via escalators....
, on the Charleroi to Ottignies line.
Public transport
Public transport is run by
TEC-Companies and organizations:* TEC , a Belgian company* Telecommunication Engineering Center, an Indian government agency* Toyo Engineering Corporation, a Japanese company...
(Transport En Commun), the
WalloonWalloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
public transport company. The greater Charleroi region is served by bus lines and a
light railLight rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
MetroA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system (
Métro Léger de CharleroiThe Charleroi Metro is a express tram network in Belgium, consisting of a horseshoe-shaped line around central Charleroi and two branches towards the suburbs of Gilly and Anderlues. It was built between 1976 and 1996 with 26 stations, of which 20 are in service as of 1996, and 6 regular tram...
). Part of the latter is famous for incorporating one of the few remnants of the
VicinalThe Tramways vicinaux or Buurtspoorwegen were a system of narrow gauge tramways or local railways in Belgium, which covered the whole country and had a greater route length than the mainline railway system...
, the former Belgian national tramway network.
Métro léger de Charleroi (MLC)
The
TEC Light Rail MétroThe Charleroi Metro is a express tram network in Belgium, consisting of a horseshoe-shaped line around central Charleroi and two branches towards the suburbs of Gilly and Anderlues. It was built between 1976 and 1996 with 26 stations, of which 20 are in service as of 1996, and 6 regular tram...
is equally famous for the parts of it which were never built, partially built, or fully completed but not opened. It was planned in the 1960s as a 48 kilometres (29.8 mi) light rail network, operating on heavy rail metro infrastructure, consisting of eight branch lines radiating from a central loop downtown. However only one line (to Petria), part of another line (to Gilly), and three-quarters of the loop were actually built and opened to traffic, all between 1976 and 1996. Another branch line towards the suburb of Châtelet (Châtelineau) was almost fully built, to the extent of installing power cables, escalators and still-working electric signals in the first three stations, but never opened as passenger numbers would be too low to pay for the extra staff. The high costs of construction, together with a decline in Charleroi's traditional "smokestack" industries, and questioning of the scope of the whole project in proportion to the actual demand for it, are all cited as reasons for the original plan going unfulfilled.
Completion of the central loop and the Gilly branch as far as Soleilmont are planned within the next five years, with funding from the
European Investment BankThe European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...
. The Gosselies branch will also open as a street-level tramline. There are no plans to open any part of the Chatelet branch.
People born in Charleroi
- Jean-Marie Andre
Jean-Marie André is a Belgian scientist and professor of Theoretical and Chemical Physics at the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix . He made important contributions to polymer chemistry. In 1991, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Exact Sciences.-External links:*...
, scientist
- Pierre Carette
Pierre Carette was the leader of the Belgian extreme-left terrorist group Communist Combatant Cells or CCC. Although Carette was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment for terrorist attacks, he was released in 2003...
, extreme-left terrorist
- Alexandre Czerniatynski
Alexandre "Alex" Czerniatynski is a Belgian former football striker, who is now the coach of Olympic Charleroi.-Career:Czerniatynski played successively for Charleroi, Antwerp, Anderlecht, Standard, Antwerp again, KV Mechelen, Germinal Ekeren and Tilleur-Liège...
, football player
- Jules Delhaize, 19th century Businessman, founder of Delhaize Group
Delhaize Group is a food retailer headquartered in Belgium which operates in eight countries and on three continents. The principal activity of Delhaize Group is the operation of food supermarkets.-History:Delhaize Group was founded in Belgium in 1867....
- Jules Destrée
Jules Destrée was a Walloon lawyer, cultural critic and socialist politician. The trials subsequent to the strikes of 1886 determined his commitment within the Belgian Labour Party. He wrote a Letter to the King in 1912, which is seen as the founding declaration of the Walloon movement...
, lawyer and politician (born in MarcinelleMarcinelle is a Walloon town in the Belgian province of Hainaut, it is currently a municipality within the Charleroi borders. Until 1977, the town was a municipality of its own....
, 19th century)
- Albert Frère
Albert, Baron Frère is a Belgian businessman and the richest man in Belgium....
, Businessman and the richest man in Belgium
- Régis Genaux
Régis Hervé Genaux was a Belgian footballer who played as a right defender, and later a coach.During his career, he represented three teams in three countries, namely Standard Liège and Udinese Calcio; he died at only 35 in November 2008.-Club career:After having started playing football with R...
, football player
- Arthur Grumiaux
Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist who was also proficient in piano.-Youth:Grumiaux was born in Villers-Perwin, Belgium to a working-class family, and it was his grandfather who urged him to begin music studies at the age of only 4...
, violinist
- Axel Hervelle
Axel Hervelle is a Belgian professional basketball player. Hervelle was drafted by the NBA club the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft, becoming the first Belgian player ever to be drafted by an NBA team. He is a and small forward-power forward.-Pro career:Hervelle spent...
, Real Madrid basketball player
- Georges Lemaître
Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first person to propose the theory of the expansion of the Universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble...
, priest and astronomer (20th century)
- Fabrice Lig
Fabrice Lig, also known as Soul Designer, is a techno music producer.- External links :** @ Discogs.com**...
, music producer (20th century)
- Joseph Maréchal
Joseph Maréchal was a Belgian Jesuit priest, philosopher and psychologist at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the University of Leuven who founded a school of thought called Transcendental Thomism, which attempted to merge the theological and philosophical thought of St...
, Jesuit priest, philosopher (20th century)
- Didier Matrige
Didier Matrige was a Belgian painter and a draughtsman born in Charleroi, Belgium. He studied at the Academies of Art of Charleroi , Liege and Mons . His work has deeply expressionists accents, coloured, sometimes recalling the satirical spirit of James Ensor...
, painter and draughtsman, (20th century)
- Joëlle Milquet
Joëlle F.G.M. Milquet is a Belgian politician from the Humanist Democratic Centre .-Education:...
, politician (20th century)
- Chantal Mouffe
Chantal Mouffe is a Belgian political theorist.-Work:Chantal Mouffe studied at Louvain, Paris and Essex and has worked in many universities throughout the world . She has also held visiting positions at Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and the CNRS...
, political theorist (20th century)
- François-Joseph Navez
François-Joseph Navez was a Belgian neo-classical painter.A pupil of Jacques-Louis David, he spent five years in Italy between 1817 and 1822. Between 1835 and 1862 he was the director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.He was a very successful portrait painter...
, painter (18th century)
- Paul Pastur
Paul Pastur was a Belgian lawyer and politician from Hainault. He obtained a law degree of the University of Liège, and started working at the bar of Charleroi in 1893....
, lawyer and politician
- Marcel Thiry
Marcel Thiry was a French-speaking Belgian poet.He was awarded the Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud in 1976 for Toi qui pâlis au nom de Vancouver, a book of poems reminiscent of Cendrars and Apollinaire...
, poet (19th century)
- Raymond Troye
Raymond Troye was a Belgian officer and writer, born in Charleroi. During his imprisonment in Nazi Germany he wrote 5 novels of which two were published after the war....
, wartime writer, (20th century)
- Annette Vande Gorne
Annette Vande Gorne is a Belgian electroacoustic music composer currently living in Ohain, Belgium.-Biography:Annette Vande Gorne was born in Charleroi, Belgium. She initially studied music at the conservatories of Mons and Brussels, and privately with Jean Absil...
, composer
- Fernand Verhaegen
Fernand Verhaegen was a Belgian painter and etcher.He was born in Marchienne-au-Pont, near Charleroi in Wallonia. He took courses at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts from 1900 to 1906 and there became friends with Rik Wouters and Edgard Tytgat. After graduation he exhibited his works in Belgium...
, painter and etcher (born in Marchienne-au-Pont, 19th century)
- Paul-François Huart-Chapel
-Biography:Paul-François Huart was born in Charleroi in 1770. He married Mary Chapel, the daughter of an industrialist.In 1806 he inherited the factories of the Chapel family. He introduced a reverbatory furnace for melting metal in 1807, in 1821 the first Puddling furnace in Belgium...
, 19th century industrialist
Other people who lived in Charleroi
- Paul Cuvelier
Paul Cuvelier was a Belgian comics artist best known for the comic series Corentin, published by Le Lombard, which first appeared in the first issue of Tintin.-Biography:...
, painter and comics artist
- Muriel Degauque
Muriel Degauque was a Belgian woman from Charleroi and a convert to Islam.La Derniere Heure, a Belgian newspaper, claimed on December 1, 2005 that she was a suicide bomber in Iraq. According to Belgian authorities, a Belgian woman committed a suicide car bomb attack on November 9, 2005 against a...
, suicide bomber in Iraq
- Marc Dutroux
Marc Dutroux is a Belgian serial killer and child molester, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 and 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. He was also convicted of having killed a suspected former accomplice, Bernard Weinstein,...
, serial killer
- Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, poet
- Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, poet
- René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
, painter
Twin cities
HirsonHirson is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.It is a few miles south of the border with Belgium, and was in the past an important strategic position due to being near the intersection of several railway lines....
,
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Saint-JunienSaint-Junien, , is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France. Its sister city is Charleroi, Belgium.-History:...
, France
SchrambergSchramberg is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Black Forest, 25 km northwest of Rottweil. With all its districts Talstadt, Sulgen, Waldmössingen, Heiligenbronn, Schönbronn and Tennenbronn it has about 22,000 inhabitants.One of...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
WaldkirchWaldkirch is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is known as "the place of mechanical organs", where fairground organs are manufactured and played on the streets from well-known manufacturers, such as A. Ruth and Sohn, Bruder and Carl Frei .-Sights:* The Catholic Church St...
, Germany
ManoppelloManoppello is a comune in Abruzzo, in the province of Pescara, Italy.It is famous for having a church which contains an image which has been suggested to be the Veil of Veronica.Also notable is the Romanesque abbey of Santa Maria Arabona....
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
CasaranoCasarano is a town and sixth most populous comune in the Italian province of Lecce, in the Apulia region of South-East Italy. The town's economy is mostly agriculture-based, with olive oil being the main product. The Church of Santa Maria Della Croce is one of the oldest Christian sites in the...
, Italy
FollonicaFollonica is a town and comune of province of Grosseto in the Italian region of Tuscany, on the Gulf of Follonica , about 40 km NW of the city of Grosseto.-History:...
, Italy
Himejiis a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. As of April 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 535,945, with 206,409 households. The total area is 534.43 km².- History :...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
DonetskDonetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
Pittsburgh, USA
CharleroiCharleroi is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, along the Monongahela River, 25 miles south of Pittsburgh. Charleroi was settled in 1890 and incorporated in 1891. The population in 1900 stood at 5,930; in 1910, 9,615; in 1920, 11,516, and in 1940, 10,784...
,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, USA
See also
- Aéropole Science Park
The Aéropole Science Park is a business incubator and science park located in Charleroi, Wallonia , nearby the Brussels South Charleroi Airport.It hosts 150 companies, providing around 3600 jobs...
- Dauphines Charleroi
Dauphines Charleroi is a Belgian women's volleyball club from Charleroi.The women's A squad currently plays at the highest level of Belgian volleyball, Ere Divisie. They achieved promotion to the highest level of Belgian volleyball in 1988....
- ICDI affair
- List of municipalities in Wallonia
- Municipalities of Belgium
Belgium comprises 589 municipalities grouped into five provinces in each of two regions and into a third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, comprising 19 municipalities that do not belong to a province...
- R. Charleroi S.C.
Sporting du Pays de Charleroi is a Belgian football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League and their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football has started in the 1985–86 season...
- R.O.C. Charleroi
Royal Olympic Club de Charleroi-Marchienne is a Belgian association football club from the city of Charleroi, Hainaut. As of 2010, they play in Belgian Third Division B.-History:...
External links