One Belgian station among seven 2023 sites “most threatened in Europe”

I amGordrik station, threatened with demolition by SNCB and Infrabel, is on the list of the “seven most endangered heritage sites in Europe” in 2023, an initiative that celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Based on a plan by the architect Pierre Albert Pauwels, “one of the most important figures of contemporary Belgian architecture”, rebuilt in the 1950s after the bombings of the war, the building works through art (basis reliefs by Maurits Wittak, ceramics by Rogier Vandeweghe), but since 2015 a It was threatened with demolition to make way for the new station.

An application for inclusion in the 2023 program of the 7 most endangered sites was submitted by the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology.

The project is supported by the EU program (“Creative Europe”), managed by the Citizens’ Movement for the Protection of Heritage Europa Nostra, together with the Institution of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Provides a grant of 10,000 euros per listed site to help implement an activity that helps save it.

In most cases, according to the Commission, the listing of a dangerous site acts as a trigger for action and mobilization of the necessary public or private support.

“The demolition of Kortrijk train station will not only mean losing an architectural gem and a symbol of post-World War II reconstruction, but will also mean losing a public space for the citizens of Kortrijk”, insists Europa Nostra.

The other six selected sites are the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina), the Sakvinci Castle in Zugti (Georgia), the Sisters’ House in Kleinwelka (Germany), and the former Moravian colony in Budapest (Memento Park in Hungary). ), Sveti Stefan, Paštrovići (Montenegro) and Bistrica, Petrovac na Mlavi (Serbia) waterworks cultural landscape.