Charleroi (UK: /ˈʃɑːrlə.rwʌ/, US: /-rɔɪ, -rwɑː/,[2][3] French: [ʃaʁləʁwa] ⓘ; Walloon: Tchålerwè [tʃɑːlɛʀwɛ]) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

The first written mention of a place called Charnoy dates from a 9th-century offering in the Lobbes abbey, which lists various neighboring towns and related tithe duties.

The French relinquished control in 1678, and although it changed hands several times over the next 50 years, the town remained part of the Netherlands until the foundation of modern Belgium.

The French Prince of Conti took the city again in 1745, but it was ceded back to Austria in 1748, beginning a period of prosperity under Joseph II.

On 12 June 1794, the French revolutionary Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, invested Charleroi and won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Fleurus.

[8] These miners were anxious to flee the repression following bloody strikes and riots in Liège and Charleroi[9] during the Walloon Jacquerie of 1886.

The city was badly damaged with further destruction only being prevented by the Couillet Treaty agreed with the German forces which required the payment of 10 million Belgian Francs, foodstuffs, vehicles and armaments.

[11] The magazine Spirou, which featured the popular cartoon characters Lucky Luke and the Smurfs, was launched by the publishing company Éditions Dupuis in 1938.

As part of the effort to improve its identity, the city adopted a new logo and graphic charter in early 2015, designed by the Brussels studio Pam and Jenny.

[18] Like the calcareous grassland, the slag heaps are habitats created by human activity that are home to many very specific and often threatened animal and plant species.

In terms of biodiversity, it is therefore preferable to maintain a mosaic of habitats, hence the interest in preserving different types of environments on the slag heaps.

This site has a small conical slag heap and large open areas consisting mainly of pioneer grassland and wasteland.

It also includes a small body of water as well as temporary ponds, and some wooded areas on the western and northern edges.

The vast reed bed surrounding the pond is home to the red warbler, a passerine bird specific to this type of vegetation.

[21] Similar to the rest of Belgium Charleroi has an oceanic climate as a result of the Gulf Stream influence warming winters, while also moderating summer warmth in spite of its inland position.

Before the merger of municipalities, from Belgian independence in 1830 until 1 January 1977 (with the exception of the period linked to the Second World War), Charleroi only experienced liberal mayors and majorities.

At the elections of October 2012, the PS, under the leadership of Paul Magnette, regained the absolute majority at the municipal council.

[24] At the municipal elections of 2018, Magnette, re-elected mayor, opened the socialist city majority to ecologists and centrists (C+).

[30][31] Moreover, from the early 2000s, the overall economy of the area has diversified to include health care, logistics, biotechnologies, energy (Suez), railway transportation (Alstom) and telecommunications (Alcatel).

More recently, other sectors have developed, mainly civil and military aeronautics (SABCA, SONACA), logistics, printing and biotechnology.

[33] Therefore, it has become the second airport of Belgium for passenger transport which is a substantial asset for the economical and commercial development of the region of Charleroi.

Il is composed of twenty-nine ports in the region of Charleroi distributed along the river Sambre and the Brussels-Charleroi canal.

light-rail network, operating partly on rapid transit/metro infrastructure, consisting of eight branch lines radiating from a central loop downtown.

Another branch line toward the suburb of Châtelet (Châtelineau) was almost fully built, to the extent of installing power cables, escalators and still-working electric signals in the first three stations[42] but was never opened as passenger numbers would be too low to economically justify the extra staff.

The high costs of construction, a decline in Charleroi's traditional "smokestack" industries and questioning of the scope of the whole project in proportion to the actual demand for it are cited as reasons for the original plan's becoming unfulfilled.

[44] In June 2021 it was announced that €60m will be allocated to refurbish and open the long-ago completed but never served inner section of the Châtelet "ghost" line, and extend it to the new hospital development in the area.