The Vaartkapoen route in Brussels

This route takes you through Molenbeek, an old neighborhood in Brussels. Due to its location on the canal from Charleroi to Brussels, Molenbeek developed into the industrial heart of Brussels in the first half of the nineteenth century. Factories and large warehouses sprang up to store and transport finished products. Known from that time is the sailing capoen, the sturdy dockworker who carried the goods from the warehouses to the ships moored in the canal. In those heyday, the district was also called'Le Petit Manchester\\\'. It is a relatively short route, but you will need time to properly view the many sights. You will see a mix of surviving nineteenth-century architecture and new construction, giving you an idea of how this neighborhood has developed. Sint-Mariastraat, for example, once had small workers' houses, but it is now a wide avenue with new buildings on both sides. As you walk through Darimonstraat, you pass Meelfabrieksplein, a name that is clearly derived from the monumental factory building. Until the late twentieth century, various types of pasta were made here. Today the building is inhabited. A little further on you come to the canal bridge past a former factory complex. Gingerbread was once made here, today the building houses a textile shop: Les Tissus du Chien Vert. In the courtyard there is still a nineteenth-century mansion where the factory manager used to live. In the Groene Hondstraat'dog\\\' does not refer to the animal, but to the marshy soil. At the end of Werkhuizenstraat, continue to the traffic lights on Saincteletteplein. Here is the famous statue De Vaartkapoen, an ode with a wink by artist Tom Frantzen to the tough dock workers of yesteryear. From the Deken Adriaensstraat you walk down to the square with the Sint-Jan-de-Doperkerk, a building that clearly bears the signature of the 1930s. The beating heart of this district is located on the square in front of the church. You can drink tea in one of the tea houses or buy fresh goods at one of the many stalls. If you turn into Gentsesteenweg, you walk on part of the old medieval connecting road between Flanders and the Rhineland. This road still functions as an economic artery of Molenbeek, where you can find many different goods at a low price. A little later, your introduction to Molenbeek ends back at the starting point, at the Graaf van Vlaanderen metro stop.