World Largest Wheelbarrow – Philippeville, Belgium - Atlas Obscura

World Largest Wheelbarrow

Philippeville, Belgium

Contrary to the claims of other villages and even the Guinness World Record, the largest wheelbarrow in the world has been in Belgium since 1998. 

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Situated 1 hour 45 minutes south of Brussels, Romedenne is a small village. Givet in France, 15 minutes by car, is the nearest town. Every year since 1984, the village organises the « Fête de la Brouette ». It takes place at the beginning of August. The highlight of this village festival is the wheelbarrow race. Teams have to complete 100 laps of the circuit as quickly as possible.

 

In 1998, for the 15th « Fête de la Brouette », the organisers set themselves the challenge of building the largest wheelbarrow in the world. (The record had previously been held by a village in the Jura region of France.) The record was confirmed on Saturday 1st August 1998. The wheelbarrow is 17,36m long, 5,16m wide and 5,54m high. It weighed 2760 kg. Its wheel had a diameter of 3,60m.

 

In that year, it was the village of Romedenne that held the record for the largest wheelbarrow in the world. But what is the situation today? The answer is rather complicated: on 14 May 2015, Guinness World Records approved another wheelbarrow in Boke, Germany. It is 11,28m in length and its wheel has a diameter of 2,81m. This means that the record has now officially been changed to a smaller wheelbarrow. The village of Saligny in the Vendée in France also claims the record. However, they do not give any measurements. A simple measurement on aerial photographs of the village shows that the roof that protects the wheelbarrow is not even 10 metres in length. In other words, it is much smaller than the other two.

 

Three villages are competing for the title, but Romedenne still has the world’s largest wheelbarrow (despite the Guinness World Record). And that’s unlikely to change: the wheelbarrow was restored in 2015 - the inner floor was removed, allowing careless visitors to climb on - and another restoration is planned for the 40th edition of the wheelbarrow festival in 2025. So it should survive the decades and keep its record.

Know Before You Go

The wheelbarrow can be found in a meadow next to the former police station of Romedenne, at 148 rue Grande.