15 Best Things to Do in Genk (Belgium) | genk belgium
AnindustrialcityinBelgianLimburg,Genkexperiencedasurgeofminingactivityinthemiddleofthe20thcenturyasitsitsrightontheKempencoalbasin.Thosecollierieswereoutofactionbythe1990s,buttheirimposingarchitecturelivesonattheC-Mineculturalcentreandcreativehub,andtheThorPark,anultra-modernscienceandbusinesspark.DespiteGenk’sindustrythere’salotofnatureallaroundthecity,atBelgium’sonlynationalparkandinthepastoralBokrijk,hometoasuperopen-airmuseum.WhenGenkwaslittlemorethanavillageinthe19thcentury,thecountrysi...
An industrial city in Belgian Limburg, Genk experienced a surge of mining activity in the middle of the 20th century as it sits right on the Kempen coal basin.
Those collieries were out of action by the 1990s, but their imposing architecture lives on at the C-Mine cultural centre and creative hub, and the Thor Park, an ultra-modern science and business park.
Despite Genk’s industry there’s a lot of nature all around the city, at Belgium’s only national park and in the pastoral Bokrijk, home to a super open-air museum.
When Genk was little more than a village in the 19th century, the countryside of heathland and ponds attracted some of the great Belgian landscape painters of the day, and you can discover the work of the Genk School at the Emile Van Dorenmuseum.
1. Bokrijk Source: Susy Baels / shutterstockBokrijkSitting amid woodland and ponds, this estate west of Genk hosted a farm run by Herkenrode Abbey from 1252 all the way up to the French Revoluti...