Our history

The Cigar

You are now in the old Windels cigar factory, a family business that has been handed down from generation to generation since 1875. August Windels founded this company as one of the first cigar factories in our country. Since then, the factory has been given another role, but you can still pay a visit to ‘Windels’, the Mechelen specialist shop for tobacco and spirits, at the street called Ijzerenleen.

In 2014, this building was bought by Hotel Vé for its expansion with 20 additional rooms, a meeting room and a wellness space with fitness room on the ground floor. In this part of the hotel, you will find several machines and pieces of equipment that were formerly used in the factory.

Where you are now, for example, you can see a former cutting machine for tobacco. Be sure to take a look inside the meeting room called ‘De Sigaar’ (The Cigar), where you can admire an old tobacco drying oven. On the first and second floor, you have to walk across the small bridge to get from the fish smokehouse into the cigar factory. Here, you will still see a lot of machines and references to the old days.

Be sure to walk up to the first-floor terrace. The view will amaze you.