The "Belvédère"

An incredible architectural presence, the Belvedere of mine-shaft number 11 is perched 17 m (56 ft) above the ground on 50 concrete legs. The building was listed in 1985.

With its stunning horizontal framing of the landscape, and its space distributed over 2 floors, it houses the "Story Loft" and "Our landscapes" exhibition, which covers over 250 m2 (2690 sq.ft.) above shaft number 11, and the panoramic lift, which takes you to the top of the pit-head frame. 

A little history...

When the Belvedere was called "la Recette"
Until 1960, this brick building surrounding the pit-head frame was known as the "Recette aérienne", the place where the coal emerged from the mine. From here, the lift carried the empty wagons down the shaft and the wagons full of newly-mined coal came up. With no human intervention, the full wagons were impelled out of the lift cage along a gently sloping track towards an aerial passageway, which took them down to the screening plant. Here, the contents of the wagons were tipped out, washed, sorted and calibrated.  When the wagons had been emptied, they returned along the passageway towards the Recette, where a mechanical system drew them up the slight slope and into the lift. This aerial passageway was the architect's inspiration for the current Pass'erelle.

Extraction shaft number 11 (Saint-Ferdinand)
In the early days of coal extraction (evidence for which has been found in the Borinage dating back to the 13th century), the coal was taken from seams rising to the surface or not far below, while by the 16th century the average depth of the shafts reached 70 metres (230 feet).
No official record of the creation of shaft number 11 has been found, and the shaft may well have been dug earlier, but in 1883, according to the first records which mention it, its depth reached 418 metres (1371 feet), with a diameter of 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). The galleries where coal was mined are at depths of 333 metres (1093 feet), 341 metres (1119 feet) and 407 metres (1335 feet). In 1950, during renovation work, the shaft was deepened to more than 1000 metres (3280 feet), with a diameter of 5.3 metres (17.4 feet). At this point the shaft served three further levels: 430 metres (1411 feet), 976 metres (3202 feet) and 1030 metres (3379 feet). It supplied excellent bituminous coal for the manufacture of coke until 16 July 1960, when it was closed.