{"id":47168,"date":"2022-07-12T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T18:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/?p=47168"},"modified":"2022-07-11T07:08:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T05:08:12","slug":"street-art-doel-anversa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/street-art-doel-anversa\/","title":{"rendered":"Street art keeps the soul of Doel alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few minutes from Antwerp you can find Doel, the ghost town located in Flanders, in the north of Belgium.<\/h1>\n
\"Street
Street art in Doel. Photos by Irene Paolinelli<\/div><\/div>\n

It once counted over a thousand inhabitants, but now a mere twenty inhabit the ghost<\/strong> town. The town was threatened with demolition for several years, due to the expansion of Antwerp<\/strong>\u2019s port.<\/p>\n

\"Church
Church in Doel. Photo by Irene Paolinelli<\/div><\/div>\n

How did Doel, a small Belgian village, become abandoned?<\/h2>\n

While surrounding towns were quickly swallowed by the port of Antwerp, Doel managed to survive. Since 1965<\/strong>, there have been plans to extend the Port of Antwerp into Doel and demolish the village, however, protests have caused a stalemate. Antwerp, as the second largest port in Europe, and one that can accommodate the largest container ships in the world, has a constant need for expansion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Doel.
Grafiti. Photos by Irene Paolinelli<\/div><\/div>\n

Even if that expansion comes at the price of the surrounding villages<\/strong> and the families who have lived there for many generations<\/strong>. This has seen many people having to sell their homes to the development corporation of that enlargement, however, some people resisted the plans.<\/p>\n

Belgium’s ghost town taken over by street art<\/h2>\n

The streets<\/strong> are quiet. Graffiti adorns its walls, and slogans remind visitors of the town\u2019s struggles. The town is a post-apocalyptic artistic paradise thanks to the murals<\/strong> covering every building. All this street art<\/strong><\/a> gives Doel something mysterious and magical. The church is one of the few buildings that the government maintains in the village. Doel attracts different artists<\/strong>, urbex photographers, as well as film students.<\/p>\n

\"Street
Street art. Photo by Irene Paolinelli<\/div><\/div>\n

Through the broken windows and open doors, Doel is usually a peaceful place where one can enjoy nature around you. There is complete silence<\/strong> except for the wind, gently breezing through the branches of the leafless trees. The sunny weather is continuously in contrast with visitors\u2019 feelings, which are turning more sombre with every step taken, with every house visited, with every slogan read. Today, only about 25 inhabitants<\/strong> live there of the original 1.300.<\/p>\n

\"Doel
Ghost town. Photo by Irene Paolinelli<\/div><\/div>\n

Give yourself a few hours to visit Doel. It is an open-air<\/strong> street art museum!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few minutes from Antwerp you can find Doel, the ghost town located in Flanders, in the north of Belgium. It once counted over a thousand inhabitants, but now a mere twenty inhabit the ghost town. The town was threatened with demolition for several years, due to the expansion of Antwerp\u2019s port. How did Doel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":47169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214,2,869],"tags":[2148,3367,3415],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStreet art keeps the soul of Doel alive - Ecobnb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few minutes from Antwerp you can find Doel, the ghost town located in Flanders, north of Belgium. It is an open-air street art museum!\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/street-art-doel-anversa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Street art keeps the soul of Doel alive - Ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few minutes from Antwerp you can find Doel, the ghost town located in Flanders, north of Belgium. It is an open-air street art museum!\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/street-art-doel-anversa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-12T18:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-11T05:08:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/Progetto-senza-titolo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"490\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Irene Paolinelli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ecobnb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Irene Paolinelli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Street art keeps the soul of Doel alive - Ecobnb","description":"A few minutes from Antwerp you can find Doel, the ghost town located in Flanders, north of Belgium. 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Per motivi di studio ho vissuto a Valladolid, in Spagna, e a Lisbona, in Portogallo. Un recente viaggio in Brasile mi ha illuminato sulla sostenibilit\u00e0 sociale e ambientale di cui la nostra societ\u00e0 ha bisogno. Fin da bambina sono stata spinta dalla scoperta di nuove culture e dalla padronanza di diverse lingue straniere. Sono appassionata di turismo sostenibile, marketing e progetti di impatto sociale. \"Chi vive deve essere preparato ai cambiamenti\" (Goethe, Viaggio in Italia).","url":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/author\/irenepaolinelli\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47333,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47168\/revisions\/47333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecobnb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}