Doel, the Vanishing Village
Doel, a village along the river Scheldt is abandoned and vanishing, because its inhabitants were more or less forced to leave, as the place will be completely demolished for the construction of new harbour facilities and a dock for the port of Antwerp.
The construction of a new large dock, and also new container terminal by the Port Authority of Antwerp has now started on a huge building site in the immediate vicinity of this village, and a second one is supposed to follow on the very location of Doel.
Many people already had no other option than to sell their house to the development corporation, due to a decision of the Flemish government concerning the expansion of the port of Antwerp. This proces has been going on for more than ten years, and now in 2013, almost all inhabitants have left so Doel has turned into a ghost village.
Since then Doel has been attracting street artists and murals and graffiti were created on the walls and facades of the abandoned houses. There are sleeping bulls and resting rats covering brickwalls and closed windows, and colorful graffiti, but also vandalism and destruction.
One thing is for sure, there is no more future for Doel, the village lying peacefully in the shadow of Electrabel's nuclear plant, and one of the last polder villages on the banks of the Scheldt. And now before it will vanish completely, it has become a curiosity...
