Where oh Where Wednesday: Doel (ghost town of a different sort)

When we talk of ghost towns we tend to think of Wild West movies, tumbleweeds blowing by in the wind with a reedy music in the background and a shot of spurs on boots jangling as a lone cowboy walks the empty, dusty street. In Belgium they do ghost town in a different way. 

Doel is a town at the edge of the province of East Flanders, set on the left bank of the Schelde. The Schelde is the river flowing to the sea on which the harbor of Antwerp is set. The harbor of Antwerp is one of the largest and busiest harbors in the world with immense amounts of goods passing through on their way to other countries. Goods from online stores everywhere, whether from Asia or America, cross paths at this harbor. 

And that has been part of the struggle for Doel. Although the town first shows up in the 13th century, it struggles throughout history to find its place. It was first a group of islands in the middle of the river, surrounded by fens. To keep things livable polders and dikes were built around the town and area in the following centuries. This could not keep the whole area from being inundated in the 16th century, but the 17th century brought new hope and new polders. 

By the 1960’s, after the Second World War, plans were being made for expansion of the growing harbor in Antwerp. These plans meant that in 1968 no one was allowed to build anymore in Doel. This was also the beginning of the building of 4 nuclear power stations that basically surround the village. These power plants are the oldest in Belgium and started producing power in the 1970’s.

In the meantime the industry zone and expansion of the harbor meant that the little village started dying out. By 1999 people could sell their houses to the industry building the harbor and leave. In the following years the village became a ghost town. The town center still stands. Social media influencers of the urban safari type like to show the abandoned houses and emphasize the strange atmosphere. And still, in 2023 the Flemish government declared that Doel should remain a livable village.