The eight-person construction team was laying the pipes when a drill became stuck in a gold bar. Among the workers was 18-year-old student Kobe, who was working a summer job and initially believed the objects being uncovered were ordinary coins.
“We suddenly saw something lying there,” 18-year-old Kobe told the 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 stash was found beneath a villa built in the late 19th century for brewery owner Theophilus Van Assche. It included gold coins, nuggets and numbered bullion bars, reportedly hidden inside a bag in a bricked-in section of the cellar.
The brewery began operating at the site in 1899 and continued until 1970. The property is now undergoing a major renovation, with only its walls expected to remain.
The workers immediately contacted police rather than attempting to keep the find and the gold has since been transferred to a secure facility in Brussels while authorities investigate who legally owns it.