Val Benoît's University

Type	Country	Date	On the Map	Status	Rating
Public building	Belgium	2006-11-06		Endangered	****

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Val Benoît's University - Click to enlarge!

Aerial view of the campus

Once upon a time, the Val Benoit...

Expansion continued in the following century. Being the owner, since 1924, of 8 hectares of land around the ruins of the ancient Cistercian Abbey of the Val-Benoit, the Liege University plans to build five new sets: an Institute of Applied Chemistry and Metallurgy, an Institute of Mineral Sciences, a Laboratory of Thermodynamics coupled to a power plant, an Institute of Mechanics and one last Civil Engineering Institute.

Work began in 1930. In November 1937, King Leopold III inaugurated the Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Institute of Civil Engineering, and the Laboratory of Thermodynamics. The Mechanics Institute was inaugurated shortly before the second world war.
In the late 1950s, the University of Liège embarked on the long adventure of migrating all its activities to the Liège district named Sart Tilman. A little more than twenty years after the inauguration of its first buildings, the premature demise of the Val Benoit campus had been planned. The University of Liege finally left the campus in 2006 (see also the report on the former Veterinary School of Brussels, owned by the University of Liège, which experienced the same tragedy in 1991).

Postcard from the façade of the Civil Engineering building

Slow decline

November 6, 2006. The first visit is always an adventure! A large fence with barbed wire surrounds the perimeter. Like any fence, it has a weak point somewhere. Two guards are making rounds, but we manage to get through and enter the ‘general mechanics’ building, using a few light stunts but remaining unnoticed.

The last occupants have just left the place - the move is not even finished, and the corridors are crowded to the ceiling with boxes.

To navigate from one building to another, we must utilize a little creativity; going outside would be too risky. We try the 'U.S. asylum' method: from the central boiler, we have access to the network of underground utility tunnels that serve other buildings on the site. Despite dealing with navel-high icy water – that was not part of the original plan- our method works!

Memories

Alarms that are triggered in the civil engineering building, still half-active.

Discovering the chemistry & metallurgy building, remaining unseen.

The canine police unit showing up for training while we pause on a rooftop ...

Novembre 12, 2010. Fourth visit. Four years and five days exactly since my first exploration of Val Benoit. The buildings have suffered a lot, now exposed to all kinds of weather. Only a few windows aren't broken, letting in the cold and rain. Inside the mechanics institute, only a few walls are still untagged. The lab glassware is shattered, beautiful wooden showcases lie upside down, and the exposed samples are scattered all over the floor.

One can just slip in. I meet countless photographers in the afternoon, squatters fleeing the rain and 3 groups of scrap metal dealers who dismantle, break and loot what is left - that is to say: not much. The old university has deteriorated too quickly, in 4 years it looks like 20!

The future is less dark; the buildings will gradually be bought by the city of Liege to be reconstructed. The first scaffolding is already there, and some roofs are being repaired to stop water seepage from damaging the structure.

To be continued, in a couple of years ...

-> Gallery of Photos - Chemistry & Metallurgy <-

-> Gallery of Photos - Civil Engineering <-

-> Gallery of Photos - Mechanics Institute <-

-> Gallery of Photos - Observatory <-

-> Gallery of Photos - Exteriors <-