Doel & Verbeke Foundation

 

The abandoned village of Doel has been on my "To Do" list for a long time. In January, I made the first attempt to go there with some friends but a lack of planning meant that we didn't get a rental car for the weekend. In the end, that was probably good because I'm sure that Doel is much nicer in summer!

For those who haven't heard about this spooky, abandoned but also somehow magical place: Doel is a village located pretty much inside the port of Antwerp and right next to a nuclear power plant. Since the port is still expanding (and it is huge already), the land turned out to be more valuable and the village became wedged in between industrial estates, the port, and the power plant. It was practically cut off from the surrounding area.

The authorities have been buying up the houses and given people incentives to leave but some few inhabitants still live there, so technically it is not totally abandoned. Surprisingly, the church was actually taken care of really well and sported nice flower arrangements! The majority of buildings are empty, though, houses are boarded up and totally overgrown with plants. In fact, you can almost tell how long each house has been abandoned for by looking at the amount of greenery around or on top of it. I really liked seeing how nature is taking over again so quickly; on a nice summer day like when we visited you can find lots of wild flowers and beautiful meadows in the middle of the village.

And then of course you have the graffiti. One of the main reasons I wanted to go is that I had read on the internet that Doel has become somewhat of an outdoor museum, attracting street artists from all over the place to leave their mark. And, indeed, it's fascinating to see all this colourful art and even spotting some famous artists (my favourite is of course ROA) which actually makes it look more alive again. Ironically, it is probably more attractive now as a tourist destination than it ever was as a "normal" village!

Also, you can rent a bike from the visit centre of the nuclear power plant and cycle the "Eco-Route" - no joke.

On the way back to Brussels we also passed by the Verbeke Foundation which has an extensive collection of contemporary art and mainly outdoors installations. It's a strange location, right next to the motorway but still very calm and beautiful with a pond and a lot of greenery. Even though it still looks like in Doel (especially the abandoned train) this is art and you can walk around and explore everything independently.

I think my favourite was the wooden dome or gazebo which cast funny shadows in the sun and had a nice geometrical structure. I was less convinced of the taxidermy animals that were cut apart and sewn together in weird positions again, like a pig that was answering a phone for example... I spared you the pictures.

All in all a great day and an easy trip from Brussels. I can only recommend making this escape from the city at some point, those are some of the coolest things that Belgium has to offer.