Doel – Town of ghosts

We are located close by Antwerp, relatively near us is also the harbor of Antwerp, the second largest of the whole Europe. Sometimes a harbor like that needs to grow. If it grows, it usually does not mind little things left on it’s way. Little things like villages.

 

One of those villages, emptied form the way of a brand new tidal doc, is Doel. Doel is, or was, a small town, few streets and a couple of hundred houses. Stubbornly, it is still standing, for a moment, but it is doomed.

It was emptied from its inhabitants, but there are still a few tough ones remaining, holding on to their properties. The town church is up there still. Tilting to its side a little bit, but never the less sounding its bells.

Among those remaining residents are a large number of drug addicts, who seek shelter in the shadows of the empty buildings. It also offers an empty canvas for multiple graffiti artists, who decorate the houses, giving them new stories, faces and lives. Over looked by the towers of a nuclear power plant. It is the arena of expressing opinions, objections or just skills.

Atmosphere of Doel is unique. You see street art literally in every wall. There is persistence hanging around the houses, that are still maintained. There is despair in the dungeons of drug users and a certain fatality, an unavoidable faith of the whole town, waiting for the machines to come and demolish it from the face of the earth.

See more pictures here!