Did you just enter The Walking dead?
Today I would like to share some pictures of a ghost town with you. When walking through "Doel", you might feel like you have just entered The Walking Dead. Luckily you needn't be afraid of zombies though! This is an abandoned town in Belgium which only has one bar and a church still operational. Most of the rest is degrading fast and being vandalized by youth looking for an adrenaline rush.
What happened; Chernobyl 2.0 maybe?
Though there is a nuclear power plant right next to Doel, it has nothing to do with what happened. These abandoned villages can look very spectacular in time and usually have a cool story behind them, but this particular one doesn't have a very sensational story. In fact the story is quite sad.
This town is located very close to Antwerp, which holds the second largest harbor in Europe. Back in 1995 the harbor wanted to expand and needed to build a container dock. According to the harbor and government this had to happen exactly where the town of Doel was located. Even though construction on this dock hadn't started yet, plans for a second container dock were approved in 1999, sealing the fate of the inhabitants of Doel.
The town started to empty and the government event started buying out some of the people who refused to leave. Still today, there are a few who haven't left and refuse to do so! Imagine still living in a town like this...
But where are those docks?
Good question! This is the saddest part, due to political and financial failure the docks were never built. Still today the history of Doel is a political drama. At this moment the town has been given back to the people and is marked as habitable zone instead of industry. However, it is pretty hard to get people to move back into Doel considering the current state of affairs. Most people have built up a new life and on top of that they feel abandoned and played by the government.
What would you do if your government wanted you to leave your home for a construction project? Can you imagine your own town looking like this? Let me know in the comments!
📷 : All photos are taken with a Canon 1000D + 18-55mm (standard kit!) and edited in Adobe Lightroom