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An urban explorer (urbex) takes photographs in the warehouse of an abandoned steel plant in Charleroi, southern Belgium, on February 9, 2026. Once a major industrial city of the coal industry, Charleroi still bears the marks of a working-class past now lying fallow. As they venture through its abandoned factories, urban explorers (urbex) end up telling the story of a system as much as of a pastime: that of a capitalism which pours investment into a place, exploits it, then withdraws, leaving behind nothing but ruins to explore.

An urban explorer (urbex) takes photographs in the warehouse of an abandoned steel plant in Charleroi, southern Belgium, on February 9, 2026.
Once a major industrial city of the coal industry, Charleroi still bears the marks of a working-class past now lying fallow. As they venture through its abandoned factories, urban explorers (urbex) end up telling the story of a system as much as of a pastime: that of a capitalism which pours investment into a place, exploits it, then withdraws, leaving behind nothing but ruins to explore.

An urban explorer (urbex) takes photographs in the warehouse of an abandoned steel plant in Charleroi, southern Belgium, on February 9, 2026.
Once a major industrial city of the coal industry, Charleroi still bears the marks of a working-class past now lying fallow. As they venture through its abandoned factories, urban explorers (urbex) end up telling the story of a system as much as of a pastime: that of a capitalism which pours investment into a place, exploits it, then withdraws, leaving behind nothing but ruins to explore.