The Mine Worker’s House Museum in Eisden (Limburg) welcomed its 175,000th visitor last weekend. The museum is a miner’s cottage where you can discover how a miner’s family lived in the Flemish coal mining region of Limburg Province in the 1930s of the last century.
The Mine Worker’s House Museum in Eisden-Maasmechelen has been in existence for 30 years now. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that this museum, housed in a miner’s cottage, would be a success. Michel Meulemans, chair of the Eisden Heritage Foundation, attributes this success to the excellent volunteer guides who transport visitors back to days when miners lived in such dwellings.
“There is a great deal of nostalgia in this museum,” Meulemans explains. “Older people recognise many objects from their youth. And young people, in turn, are fascinated by the kitchen utensils of the time.”
There were also some rather unusual rules at the mine back then, explains Meulemans. “A widow, for instance, was not allowed to remain in the house unless she took in a lodger who worked in the mine. So there was a little room reserved for that. But the lodger had to pass the room where the daughters of the family slept and the Roman Catholic church authorities of the day were very much against that!”
Film location for movie “Maria”
The miner’s cottage also has served as a filming location for the movie ‘Maria’, which tells the story of the early life of Flemish-Italian singer Rocco Granata. ‘In the film, you also see things that miners typically used to do when they couldn’t afford certain items,’ Meulemans continues. ‘You see Rocco’s dad painting a carpet along the side of his bed. That was something that happened quite often. If miners didn’t have the money for things like marble, a carpet or a stair runner, they would simply paint them.’
New addition to the collection
The Mine Worker’s House Museum's collection continues to grow. An original Belgian veterans’ flag has now been added.
Michel Meulemans explains: ‘We received the flag from Michel Vigneron, a former alderman and member of the veterans’ association. In 1920, the then Mine Director presented this flag to a number of miners who had returned from the trenches of the Great War. It was a gift to mark the founding of their veterans’ association.’ The flag will, however, need to be restored first.