Construction workers in Belgium unearthed approximately $10 million in gold while laying a new sewer system at a former brewery in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde on Tuesday, August 13, 2026, discovering 49 gold bars and roughly 4,000 gold coins bricked into a cellar wall beneath the 19th-century property.
The discovery was made by an 18-year-old student named Kobe and his colleagues working on a renovation project for the former Brouwershuis brewery. “We suddenly saw something lying there,” Kobe told Belgian news network VTM. “At first I thought it was €1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.”
The gold hoard was stashed in a bag within a bricked-in cellar wall beneath a grand villa originally built for brewery owner Theophilus Van Assche in the late 19th century. According to The Guardian, Kobe noted that “it was really bricked in there – not in a safe or anything,” suggesting the treasure had been deliberately concealed. Brewing operations began at the site in 1899 and continued until 1970, though authorities have not yet established who hid the gold or precisely when it was concealed.
The building is being completely renovated by the social welfare organization CAW Oost-Vlaanderen to create offices and housing. Geert Hillaert, of CAW, told HLN that “labourers were laying drainage pipes when they stumbled across the gold.” The workers immediately notified police and the welfare organization, and the treasure has since been transferred to a secure facility in Brussels for a detailed official investigation.
The legal status of the discovery remains complex. Hanne Ollevier, of the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office, told HLN that authorities must first verify the bullion was not stolen property or proceeds of criminal activity. Multiple parties could have claims: the building contractors, the welfare organization, and any descendants of the Van Assche family. Belgian law requires finders to wait at least five years for potential owners to claim any treasure discovered on their behalf.
A former mayor of Dendermonde, Piet Buyse, told HLN that the Van Assche family’s fortune “certainly stayed in the family. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had decided to put at least some of it in gold, and then to hide it in a safe place.” For Kobe and his colleagues, the find raised questions about reward. “If it had been a few coins, maybe not,” Kobe said. “But maybe we’ll get some kind of finder’s reward eventually.”
The discovery echoes other recent construction-site finds. In May 2026, workers building a highway in the Czech Republic uncovered a 2,200-year-old Celtic settlement filled with gold and silver treasures, according to reporting from AS USA. Such discoveries on construction sites are not uncommon in Europe, where centuries of history lie beneath urban and rural development.
The Dendermonde gold discovery has been reported across major outlets covering the Belgian brewery site find, with the gold found hidden in the Dendermonde cellar wall drawing international attention to the historic property and its mysterious past.
Sources
- The Guardian — the discovery by 18-year-old Kobe, the contents of the hoard, the property’s history, Belgian law on treasure claims, and quotes from CAW and the prosecutor’s office
- CBS News — confirmation of the $10 million discovery during sewer work in Belgium
- Fox News — confirmation of $10.4 million in gold during sewer construction at the former brewery
- AS USA — the May 2026 Czech Republic construction discovery precedent
