Sint-Niklaas used to be an important textile town. Now the factories have all closed down, but you can discover the city’s past glory in the city museum SteM Zwijgershoek.
Located in a former textile factory, the museum has preserved a huge factory floor with rows of old knitting machines. Most of them still functioning. You learn here about the textile industry that once boomed in Sint-Niklaas in the years after the First World War.
The museum also has a series of obscure and deserted rooms filled with an intriguing collection of objects from the museum’s storerooms that have been gathering dust over the decades.
The highlight is a unique and extensive collection of antique hairdressing equipment, including some strange and rather sinister electrical devices from the 1920s that were used to give the local ladies a Hollywood-style permanent wave.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
