peer reviewed ; This article aims to show microgeography's contribution to the analysis of industrial space in Wallonia. As far as we are concerned its contribution is twofold: in the first instance it helps to understand the reason for the different localisations and, secondly, it brings to the fore and explains the transformations in distribution. Furthermore, this work also makes it possible to carry out very detailed surveys on the scale of a commune, a town-district or even a road. When collating the existing research on Wallonia one is, inevitably, led to liken this region to other European economic entities industrialised in the 19th Century. Indeed, one finds simi-litaries such as the co-existence of old sites and new localisations as well as the presence of many abandoned sites. In addition one can bring to the fore processes which exist elsewhere, namely disindustrialisation of towns, exurbanisation of activities and new attempts ol reintegrate industry into urban environment.