RTT Lessive
THE ABANDONED COMMUNICATION PARK IN BELGIUM
This is the site of the former RTT in Lessive, a site with six dish antennas. The six hectares site lies in a 50 hectare forest in the Belgium Ardennes.
Calls to other continents were possible thanks to special Intelsat satellites. RTT Lessive was built in 1972 to receive and send information. Belgium was one of the 11 countries that collaborated on the project from the start. A satellite could then make 4000 simultaneous telephone calls and transmit two television programs. The station was built in a valley so that less interference was received from nearby villages.
The center in Lessive served as an example. For this reason the buildings had a futuristic look and were supposed to impress the visitors, the desks were modern, there was even an auditorium for 200 people that could be used for teleconferences.
150 thousand visitors
It was also a museum about communication. At the height of its attendance, the RTT domain saw 150 thousand visitors per year. The largest dish, which is 37 meters in diameter, had been sold in 2007 to the Indian group ORG. They wanted to use satellite dishes to broadcast the Indian satellite TV channel to Africa. The group went bankrupt in 2015. Also, the Belgium Satellite Services that managed the infrastructure went bankrupt in 2016, leaving the site abandoned. The company provided connections to the satellites Hotbird and Eurobird.
School
The RTT was sold in 2018, today the site is back in use again. The new owner wants to start a school with alternative education here, including a rest home of 100 beds and about 50 bungalows.
The photos of RTT Lessive were taken in 2017. Also check this other Belgium astronomy station and this Polish park.
