In one of Belgium’s most important industrial cities, somewhere in Charleroi, a massive complex of steel, concrete, and rust rises into the landscape. Once one of the key centers of European steel production, this place shaped the life of an entire region for decades.

In this episode, we explore the coke plant on the site. This is where one of the most important components of steel production was produced — coke, which was needed in the blast furnaces to first obtain pig iron from iron ore.