The best city hikes and walks in Vlaams Natuurreservaat Helderbeek-Terril

Each mine has two shafts. This is necessary for good ventilation: one supplies fresh air, the other removes the warm, dust-polluted air. At the top of the shaft is the headframe, a structure with lifts for transporting miners, coal, and materials. Headframe I stood on the current parking lot and was demolished after the mine closed. Headframe II was built in 1925 by the Luxembourg construction company Wurth. Like the reception building under the headframe, it is constructed in metal framework according to the tower type, with an open lift shaft and a metal arched roof. The whole is protected as a monument and is currently being restored. The buildings will be repurposed into office, knowledge, and training centers. At the top of the headframe, a sky-lounge will be set up, accessible by a panoramic lift.

At the top of the small slag heap is a 360° viewing platform with explanations and directions in all directions of where you are looking.

At the top of the small slag heap is a 360° viewing platform with explanations and directions in all directions of where you are looking.

The small mining dump of Beringen has been transformed into a spectacular adventure mountain where young and old can enjoy themselves.

Landewald Janssen, a Franciscan Friar Minor, was an adept naturalist in various fields. His numerous publications, including those in De Wielewaal, Natura-Limburg, and in publications of the Limburgs Landschap, dealt with plants, mushrooms, mosses, lichens, insects, and, not least, birds. As a follower of the teachings of Francis of Assisi, he celebrated nature and creation in his lyrical poems, which appeared in various collections. He founded several important Limburg "Ornithological Study Centers," including Wijvenheide, Terlaemen, Kolberg, Ter Donk, Platwijers, Meylandt-Obbeek-Stabroek, Kelchterhoef, and Herkenrodebossen. Thanks to Landewald Janssen's work, these areas received the highest level of protection under the regional plan. Since then, they have partially or largely evolved into fully-fledged nature reserves. Janssen was also the founder of the Limburg Nature Conservation Action (NAL), along with fellow conservationists Gust Claes and René Neven. He would later oversee the protection of the Berkenbosbeek and Galgenberg streams (Heusden-Zolder). Source: https://www.provinciaalnatuurcentrum.be/files/Kennisbank/Avifauna-preview-spreads.pdf

The only remaining mortuary of all the Limburg mines is located on the Zolder mine site. Unfortunately, fatal accidents occurred regularly during mining. This former mortuary was used to store the body of a deceased employee before it could be released for autopsy and burial. When a body was stored in the mortuary, the light was always turned on. This way, the miners knew that one of their comrades had died. A scene created by artist Stefan Elsen is depicted on the back wall of the mortuary. The art installation against the wall of the mortuary consists of a white block of Carrara marble that suggests the table on which the bodies were laid out. The floating body above it gives the impression that it is slowly rising or descending. That hanging body consists of small mirrors. After all, every miner used to have a mirror in his wardrobe, in which he could see whether his face was clean enough to return to his family or loved one. Hundreds of miners (930 in all the Limburg mines) have died in an industrial accident in the mine and have no longer been able to look in a mirror...

I don't know exactly what starts here, but here are the "official" walks in Houthalen-Helchteren: https://visit.houthalen-helchteren.be/te-doen/wandelen-en-fietsen/wandelen Worth seeing in Houthalen centre from a heritage perspective are the church and rectory with the village park. The viewing platform at the NAC is also worth it and then you have the remains of the mining past just south of the centre. All heritage in Houthalen and an extensive history of the village at https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/themas/14671

Next to the rectory you will find a garden, more like a small park (the "village park"), right across from the NAC. In the park there are several seating areas and a memorial stone for Mark Bos, who died 32 years ago in the youth center. The park was built in 2023.