The Vlaamse Vereniging voor Industriële Archeologie vzw (Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology, VVIA), in consultation with Kortrijk heritage associations, submitted last year a candidacy for the European campaign ‘The 7 Most Endangered 2023’. This is a campaign by Europa Nostra together with the European Investment Bank Institute and with the support of the European Commission, in which an annual list of the seven most endangered heritage sites in Europe is drawn up.
On 13 April, at 11am, the final list of the seven most important endangered heritage sites by 2023 in Europe was announced via an international online event.
Kortrijk railway station is one of the seven.
This is an important signal.
Using the example of Kortrijk station, VVIA now wants to draw attention to the threat to railway and transporter heritage, the recognition and protection of recent and post-war heritage. The European Year of Rail (2021) had no results in terms of preserving and interpreting railway heritage, quite the contrary. Renewal plans were launched across Europe, many of which involved replacement and destruction of heritage.
When the real estate heritage of South-West Flanders was inventoried some 25 years ago, there was no interest in reconstruction and recent architecture. The station was not included in the inventory then and is therefore not protected as a monument.
The Belgian railway company NMBS-SNCB now wants to demolish this station and replace it with a wide tunnel under the tracks, which would house all station functions. A station building as such would thus disappear. How the spatial transition to the city would be translated is an open question?
The inclusion in the list of The 7 Most Endangered 2023 of Kortrijk station can have the important effect of sparking a discussion on how to deal with these categories of heritage – not only in Flanders but also elsewhere.
To this, VVIA wishes to lend its full cooperation.
After its European appreciation and inclusion in the 7 Most Endangered, it is no longer justifiable today that the Kortrijk station does not enjoy any form of heritage protection.
After it became known at the end of January that the station had been included in the shortlist of The 7 Most Endangered, VVIA submitted an application for legal protection as a monument on 15 February to Minister Diependaele, who is responsible for immovable heritage. Copy was sent to the Heritage Agency.
This application was supported by several organisations, including Europa Nostra Belgium, Heemschut (Netherlands) and DoCoMoMo. Meanwhile, a petition list for the preservation of the station has also been signed by more than 2,300 people.
To date, we received only an acknowledgement of receipt, but hope that the conservation procedure will be started soon.
We cannot imagine that the minister would not accede to this request for protection.
In addition, in consultation with architects and creative people, proposals and ideas must now be developed for redevelopment. Domestic and numerous foreign examples show that preserved and repurposed traditional station buildings, with or without retaining a railway function, can play an important role in the development of cities and regions.
A series of talks are also being prepared with the city of Kortrijk (which has to grant planning permission for demolition, construction and rebuilding) and with the railway company NMBS / Infrabel – previously unaware of the building’s value. To this day, no final plans are known and no application for demolition or new construction has yet been submitted – so in principle, all options are still open.
Meanwhile, however, there is much opposition from the railway company to any protection as heritage, while even circles hoping to benefit from the estimated budget of more than 40 million euros are certainly not in favour.
It is therefore important for all heritage enthusiasts to push for such protection
Meanwhile, there is much opposition from the railway company to protection as heritage, while even circles hoping to benefit from the estimated budget of more than 40 million euros are certainly not in favour.
It is therefore important for all heritage enthusiasts to push for such protection
To increase the chances of protection, it would be a great help if architectural and heritage associations and individual citizens also indicated their support for this application for protection via a short (support) letter.
Experience shows that public support can greatly increase the chances.
Letters of support can be sent to
* Cabinet Matthias Diependaele
Flemish minister responsible for immovable heritage
kabinet.diependaele@vlaanderen.be
Koning Albert II-Laan 7 (seventh floor), B-1210 Brussels (Belgium)
* and copy to
Flanders Heritage Agency
Herman Teirlinck Building
Havenlaan 88 bus 5, B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)
Please also contact the city council of Kortrijk, asking them to support the saving of their railway station
City of Kortrijk
Ms Ruth Vandenberghe, mayor
Grote Markt 54, B-8500 Kortrijk (Belgium)