The cycling landscape in Vollezele does not get more idyllic than this: rolling fields, farm horses grazing peacefully in the meadow, an inviting track making its way all the way to the top of the hill. At the foot of the 100-metre-high Congoberg stands ‘The abduction of Europe’, an imposing work of art by sculptor Koenraad Tinel. And at the very top, a magnificent panorama awaits with breathtaking views of the Pajottenland and the Dender-Mark Urban Quiet Park. And the name? It has nothing to do with Congo. In around 1900, this place was occupied by the humble little homes of the mining families. The men commuted every day to the Borinage to toil in the Walloon mines. They returned home black as soot.
