Triage-Lavoir de Péronnes () is a former coal washing facility that was built with the help of the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

in 1954. It was built for the demand of the coal industry to process the coal coming from the mines of Péronnes, Ressaix and Trivières. It was capable processing over 3,000 tons of coal daily. In 1969 the nearby coal mines in Saint-Albert and Sint-Margriete were closed, which caused Triage-Lavoir to become useless, and it was closed down after only 15 years of active operation. Immediately after closing the facility, all the machines and equipment were removed and the facility stayed abandoned for over 3 decades. The building was under threat of demolition in 2000 but on May 15, 2003, it was classified as a monument to be saved. Currently the building is under renovation financed by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the

Walloon Region Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three regions of Belgium—along with Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is primarily French-speaking. It accounts for 55% o ...

through the Marshall Plan of Wallonia program. The renovation started in September 2005.Alt URL
/ref> The renovation of the exterior of the building was scheduled to be finished by September 2006. The budget for the walls was 2.1 million euros. In spring 2010, the renovation work was still in progress. The exterior and a small fraction of the ground floor has been rebuilt. Certain parts of the old building will be left untouched, other than cleaning and careful restoring, in order to preserve the building's unique architectural elements. Inside the back of the building, half buried in the ground, new storage rooms will be built for the companies to use. The renovated building is supposed host several organisations, including The General Archives of the Royalty (intermediate centre of archives), Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium (stores coal and fossil core-samples), the IFAPME (center of professional development: contemporary artwork, design) and some private offices.

In music

* Triage-Lavoir de Péronnes appears on the music video of

À contre-courant "À contre-courant" (English: "Against the Current") is a song by French pop singer Alizée, released on 7 October 2003. as the third and final single for her second studio album, ''Mes courants électriques'' (2003), through the label Polydor. Th ...

, of

Alizée Alizée Lyonnet ( Jacotey; born 21 August 1984), known professionally as Alizée, is a French pop singer. She is one of the best-selling French female artists of the 21st century, and the singer with the most exports out of France. Her best-k ...

. The music video was filmed inside the building and shows the two main actors running around in it. Also some exterior scenes were used.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Triage-Lavoir de Peronnes Industrial buildings completed in 1954 Coal preparation plants Buildings and structures in Hainaut (province) Binche