KAARSENFABRIEK [BE]

Exploration #280. Kaarsenfabriek. This candle factory, known online as Kaarsenfabriek, began in 1902 in Belgium. Converted from a 19th-century gin distillery, it produced stearin candles, devotional candles and floor wax until its closure in 1983.

The former Kaarsenfabriek is not a monumental industrial complex, but a compact factory rooted in local Belgian production. In 1902, the Verougstraete family transformed an older distillery into a candle works under the Union brand, supplying both domestic use and religious demand with household candles, church candles and votive products. Its growth followed the needs of the early 20th century. Around 1925, a new brick building was added behind the main site, giving the factory more space for production. By the 1930s, Union candles had become well known locally, enough for the company to present its products in a striking Art Deco display cabinet at the 1935 Brussels World Exhibition.

After the Second World War, production moved away from manual casting. A wheel-casting system allowed candles to be made in a more efficient line, marking the factory’s shift from craft-based work to small-scale mechanized industry. The decline came with the same pressures that affected many family-run Belgian manufacturers: automation elsewhere, cheaper imports and a changing market.

The factory closed in 1983. Today, its dark rooms, brick halls and surviving industrial traces preserve the memory of a modest but complete candle-making world.