© Domingos Oliveira / RTL
Sanem has decided to demolish Belval's two historic smokestacks due to high renovation costs and safety concerns, a move criticised by the association Amicale des Hauts-Fourneaux.
For more than fifty years, the two brick smokestack on Belval have dominated the landscape, but their days now appear numbered. The municipality of Sanem has decided they must be demolished, citing safety concerns and the prohibitive cost of restoring the structures.
Sanem mayor Simone Asselborn-Bintz, explained that engineers found the towers structurally unsound. The red bricks are deteriorating and pieces risk falling, creating a hazard, she said. The towers, once 115 and 75m high, were reduced to 40m in 2012, and since then had been largely neglected.
She noted that restoring them to a safe condition would cost around €6 million, with a further €1 million every three years required for ongoing maintenance. Asselborn-Bintz stated that this represents a considerable financial burden for a municipality.
The association 'Amicale des Hauts-Fourneaux', however, regrets the decision. According to association president Dan Cao, the smokestacks were originally intended to be preserved and integrated into the new urban district.
Cao criticised Sanem's approach, suggesting that allowing the structures to deteriorate and then declaring them unsafe was typical of how industrial heritage is treated, and lamented that Luxembourg risks losing sight of the origins of its economic prosperity.
Where the towers now stand, the municipality plans to create a green public space in the coming years. To shape this new area, Sanem will launch an ideas competition open to landscape architects, urban planners, and artists, according to Asselborn-Bintz.
She added that they are planning a park that belongs to everyone: a place for people to gather, move around, and also remember the history of the site. As she explained, designers will have full creative freedom to propose how the memory of the towers could be integrated into the new landscape.
Before any demolition can begin, Sanem must first modify its general development plan (PAG), a process expected to take about a year. If all goes according to schedule, dismantling the smokestacks could start at the end of 2026.
