Usine Gonzo is part of a traditional flax retting plant. The plant was established at the end of the 19th century and was systematically expanded to the current site. The entire site is considered valuable heritage. This is due to its strategic location, but also because it is one of the best-preserved retting plants of its kind. There are typical retting pits, the steam engines with their accompanying chimney, a few flax barns, and a scutching mill. The engine room contains, among other things, steam boilers and an exceptional steam engine, the only one of its kind still to be found in Belgium.
The boilers were fired with 'lerms', the woody cores of the flax stalks that were separated from the flax fibers during the production process. As a result, heating costs could be reduced to almost zero. This fuel was also used in this spinning mill until the late 1970s. The company fell into disuse in the late 1970s, but it would take more than 25 years before the entire site was protected as industrial heritage.
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