"Brouwerij Gistel"

The project Brewery Gistel started as a property memoir project. Somebody who knew me for my Urbex explorations and my fascination with abandoned properties, gave my contact to a family in the process of selling their family house. Actually, their mother's house. Georgette, now turned 95, was unfortunately too old to tend to the property's needs since she moved already to an elderly home to have finally some well deserved dedicated care. No one of the six children was able or willing to take on the financial burden of renovating and maintaining such large property, and so the story goes, alike for many other families, including my own, that the house had to be sold. And so it was. 

In the summer of 2024 I was granted access to the house right before the sale act was signed. I roamed with my camera and tripod around the house, enchanted by the beauty of its rooms: the furnitures from the year 50ies till 70ies were lying on wooden floors or tiles dating back to the mid-to-late 1800 overcasted by ceilings that once upon a time must have been impeccable and extremely . with each area of the house had a very specific colour palette, Emiel, the youngest son and friend of my aquaitance who referred me to them,  

But little I knew, I was starting a journey into the life of a woman I would come to love with deep affection and admiration. A woman from another generation, a generation that saw the big war, World War II, and would still today be able to sing to me the song that the German nazi soldiers would sing each time they would march in front of her house in Gistel. 

Georgette De Leye, today 96, touched my heart from the very moment I met her. Because after I roamed around the Brewery 

This house has been and is till nowadays protected as common heritage of Belgium, as it is part of the historical breweries of the region  of their  contacted me because they were in the process of selling their house to a buyer had to sell the house where they lived all their lives and wanted some pictures to immortalise the walls, floors and furnitures that accompanied their mother during the taxing business of growing a family of five kids all alone.

Now turned 95, Georgette became too old to live alone and maintain the large property all by herself, it came time to sell this  house that is national patrimony and which was once upon a time, a brewery.