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What Happens When A Country Decides Your Town Needs To Be Destroyed?

What On Earth Is This?

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Doel. That is all.

Nah it's not really - there's a tiny Belgian village squashed between the Port of Antwerp and the Dutch border that has basically been in the way of every major public works project in the region for like... 100 years.

But while all other villages around it have been destroyed, and the town itself having been earmarked for demolition time and time again, Doel has somehow remained.

But how? And why? I travelled to this strange little town to find out.

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Welcome to What On Earth Is This?, a YouTube channel featuring strange and quirky things from around the world that you may not have heard of.

Think abandoned engineering marvels, weird funiculars, transit oddities and other bits of history you never wanted to know about... until now.

Like and subscribe and all that.

Follow me on IG at @WhatOnEarthIsThis

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:35 old history
02:58 newer history innit
04:00 Oh no Doel
05:32 Genuinely what is going on
07:25 fun times in the 80s
08:54 Squat away
09:38 Demolitions begin
10:09 The courts save the day
11:50 The situation today
13:08 Rambly nonsense

20 Comments

@WhatOnEarthIsThisThing Creator 5 months ago (edited) Pinned

Yes I'm an idiot and only discovered later that "Doel" is pronounced more like "Dool" than the "Dole" way I say it in the video. But it's too late now isn't it. Please don't hate me.

EDIT: People have pointed out that literally yesterday, the Belgian govt announced it was renationalising its nuclear plants and Doel will not be demolished/decommissioned. Fuck me how about that for bad timing.

@therealchriscunningham 4 months ago (edited)

That juxtaposition of nuclear power plant and historic stone windmill is straight out of Sid Meier's Civilization.

@OxoceroTwo 5 months ago

Translation of the poem at 6:28:

Later, when the many beautiful memories
have taken the place of my sorrow,
might I be able to put into words
what I can now only say with tears.

@TimonTrukker 4 months ago

Doel is perfect to learn to drive. There's no traffic, but all the usual road infrastructure is present. You can see in the video that all the traffic signs are brand new. And if you leave Doel, traffic builds up gradually depending on which direction you go.

@ArnoZwaag 5 months ago

Funnily enough. The sign at 5.57 shows Moerdijk (Netherlands) and not Doel (Belgium). Coincidentally Moerdijk has also recently been selected to be demolished to make room for port facilities.

@calculus3661 5 months ago

Oh you bastard, i was just there last week. Get out of my head.

@C4ier4 4 months ago

Ive been there last autumn, did a bike trip with a friend from Rotterdam to Doel. We were nicely welcomed by few of the villagers. very kind people. they asked us to not camp randomly in the village and invited us to camp in their land. we were pleased to find out more people were camping in their land. they allowed us to make a bonfire and we managed to get a good rest to bike back home the next morning. all that to say, respect the locals, they may be a few but that is their city. much love!

@stoeres 5 months ago

for another oddity in the Antwerp harbour, there is also a very out-of-place church tower in the middle of the harbour factories on the rightbank, it's called the Sint-Laurentius churchtower of Wilmarsdonk. This town did actually get completely sacreficed to the expension of the harbour back in 1966 but because the churchtower was protected heritage it was the only thing not knocked down and now it stands as a lone landmark between warehouses and shippingcontainers.

@yabatopia 5 months ago

Breaking news! While editing or uploading this video, the destiny of Doel has changed again. Once again, the Belgian government changed plans for the nuclear power plant of Doel. Instead of winding down the power plant, the stable geniuses of the Belgian government now want to buy the nuclear power plant from the French company Engie and continue operations. Although it will cost billions and billions to modernize the power plant and the Belgian budget deficit is already astronomical, the Belgian government decided to YOLO it. Anyway, by the time you’re reading this, things may have already been changed once again and Doel was indeed transformed to a water park!

@stevens1041 4 months ago

The scene of the nuclear power plant's cooling towers with the windmill in the foreground, along a levee is peak Low Countries. I love it.

@muujina 5 months ago

I remember going to Doel as a kid because my mom had a friend who lived there. Back then there was still quite a bit more people than nowadays. It's crazy how much emptier it is now.

@TheShmot 5 months ago

Doel can also be translated as 'purpose', which feels even funnier concidering it's almost abandoned

@KendlickLama 4 months ago

This channel is criminally underrated

@Sk1tch3r 5 months ago

Nice video! This week the Belgian government announced that they plan to nationalize all nuclear power plants in the country, including the one in Doel, to become (more) self sufficient. It will therefore be unlikely that the reactor in Doel will be demolished from 2035.

@TOPCyber 4 months ago

Doel was a very beautiful village in its heydays. I used to drive my motorcycle when this village was still buzzing with life. There was a nice restaurant, a cafe and so on. The old windmill (the information centre right now) used to be a cafe and was always full of customers. I live about half an hour drive from Doel and we visit this village from time to time but it will never be the same again.