Doel is still inhabited, so please respect the locals and the visiting rules if you would ever visit!
For anyone who doesn’t know the background:
Doel is a small village near the Port of Antwerp that has been slowly emptied since the late 20th century due to harbor expansion plans. Homes were bought up, permits were frozen, and most residents eventually left, but a small group refused to move.
The expansion plans were finally canceled in 2022, and today around 30 people still live there, down from roughly 1,500.
I visited Doel and filmed how the village looks in 2025.
If you want the full story with visuals, here’s my 8-minute mini-documentary:
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Doel is still inhabited, so please respect the locals and the visiting rules if you would ever visit!
For anyone who doesn’t know the background:
Doel is a small village near the Port of Antwerp that has been slowly emptied since the late 20th century due to harbor expansion plans. Homes were bought up, permits were frozen, and most residents eventually left, but a small group refused to move.
The expansion plans were finally canceled in 2022, and today around 30 people still live there, down from roughly 1,500.
I visited Doel and filmed how the village looks in 2025.
If you want the full story with visuals, here’s my 8-minute mini-documentary:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8F_aA6DzlM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8F_aA6DzlM)
Interesting photos! I’ve been meaning to go for a while now with my camera..
One of the few villages with a checkered street pattern.
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