Thanks to Ryanair offering 30€ flights from Hamburg to Brussels I decided to finish Belgium by ticking off Spiennes. I contacted the museum and reserved a place for a Sunday afternoon visit. The visit includes the museum, an excavation site and a descent into one cave that covers several mines.

Flintstone was the key material in prehistoric times. The mines at Spiennes show to what lengths mankind would go to mine it. They would dig 10-20m deep holes with little to no light and only very primitive tools to use. It’s interesting to think about this as an early industrial site.

Similar mines are found all over Europe. The Polish tentative list even features one of them, Krzemionki. I am hard pressed to see why Spiennes would be special compared to the other mines. But seeing I am always arguing against serial nominations, I think having a flint stone mine on the list is fine. Even if the criteria was only that Belgium proposed this type of site first.

Getting There and In

Public transport options to Spiennes on the weekend are non existing. On my way to the museum I walked from Mons Trieux bus station (>1h). Another option would have been to go to Saint Symphorien.

On my way back the very kind guide gave me a ride and dropped me off in Mons. Maybe you can arrange for her to pick you up, too, if you call the museum ahead of your visit. Your own car is obviously superior.

Tickets can be reserved via mail. But when I showed up they had not received or could not find my reservation. It all worked out, apart from me potentially having paid twice. For your visit, please call the week before your scheduled tour to make sure everything has been forwarded.

While You Are There

Mons has plenty of WHS in the near proximity, for instance the Wallonie Mining Sites and the Four Lifts. Mons itself itself is the site of one of the ubiquitous belfries.

The site that tickled my interest the most was the World War 1 cemetery in Saint Symphorien, part of the World War 1 Cemeteries tentative site. It’s not that far from the museum, at least if you come by car. Unlike most World War 1 cemeteries this is dedicated to fallen soldiers of both the German and English sides. When my guide gave me the ride back into town, she explained that the landowner of both the flint stone mines and the cemetery was the same. He donated his land for the cemetery, but he demanded that it should be a cemetery for both sides. The location may have been a counterproposal as originally the old quarries were considered as location. In a way he protected with his donation the world heritage site.