Doel

Doel (called Den Doel in the local speeches) is a village located in the extreme North-East of the Belgian province of Flanders-Eastern, in the marshes of the country of Waas, on left bank of the the Scheldt, broad in this place of some 1500 meters per high tide, opposite Lillo-Fort. Today integrated in the entity of Beveren, Doel was until 1977 an autonomous commune, of a surface of 25,61 km ², and of a population of some 1300 inhabitants (1972). In addition to the village itself, the old commune of Doel includes/understands the hamlets of Rapenburg, Saftinge and Ouden Doel, and of course, vast extended from drained marshes.

For a few decades, the village has been found regularly projected in the center of the Belgian topicality, on two accounts.

Initially, it was chosen, like the village of Tihange in the province of Namur, like site of one of the two nuclear plants which account Belgium.

Then, and more recently, it seems well now established that Doel must be added to the list of the villages poldériens (if us this neologism is allowed) sacrificed to the expansion of the wearing of Antwerp. Indeed, the total evacuation of the village, after expropriation of its inhabitants, was decided in 1999 by the Flemish regional authority, to make place with new harbor installations. In spite of resistances, and legal battle engaged by the committee of action Doel 2020 (sasines of the Council of State, etc), the fate of Doel appears sealed today, and it should be feared that the recourse have of another effect only to prolong of it the anguish. The evacuation follows its course, and at dated December 31st, 2006, Doel counted already nothing any more but 388 inhabitants.

History

The name of Doel is attested for the first time in 1267, in the form “De Doolen”. The precise significance remains obscure; the term could be a reference to “dalen”, valleys, within the meaning of heaps of sand dug. With the the Middle Ages, Doolen could be small islands in the middle of the Scheldt. For others, Doel would mean `dam, fill, lifting'. `Doel' became, after the French domination, the official designation.

The zone around Doel was in the beginning made up of marshy grounds and belonged to a vast boggy extent being stretched of is in west on all the Flanders zélandaise and the north of the Flanders-Eastern . In the north of Doel more especially, in what today is the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe, the layer of peat was particularly thick. As from the 13th century, one proceeded in this zone, which at the 13th century had twice more inhabitants than Doel, and which lodged a Cistercian abbey, to an intensive exploitation of the Tourbe. This employment, extremely gainful, induced a certain prosperity in the area.

The peat digging in the marshy zone caused to lower the level of the ground in many places and to make the zone vulnerable to the floods. In same time, as from the 12th century, the Scheldt underwent more and more the influence of the the North Sea. For these reasons, it occurred regularly starting from the 14th century that Doel and the north parts of the Country of Beveren were completely flooded, determining the need for building dams and for thus arranging Polder S.

However, all this system, combining empoldering and peat digging, gradually set up in the area during the the Middle Ages, was destroyed little by little, initially by a series of catastrophic floods at the 16th century (of which most serious, in the year 1570, known under the name of Allerheiligenvloed , “tide of All Saints' day”, entirely submerged, and on a purely final basis, the marsh of Saeftinghe), then by the immersions, this time deliberately caused on strategic grounds, lasting the Guerre Eighty Year old, in particular at the time of the seat of Antwerp by Alexandre Farnèse. The area was indeed then the theater of combat whose stake was the control of Antwerp and the estuary of the Scheldt. At this same time, it was plundered by twice, the gueux ones (Protestants) of Malines and by the catholic army rabble royal. The voluntary immersions could not prevent Farnèse from taking Antwerp in 1585, but the forces of the State-generals having succeeded in seizing the fort of Liefkenshoek, located in the south of Doel (and existing still today), the village and the marsh of Doel were starting from 1585 pennies domination of the State-generals.

When the interlude of peace arrived corresponding to the Trève twelve years (1609-1621), the whole area was only one zone of desolation where tides and floods of the Scheldt had free career; all was to be remade. Doel was used as fulcrum in the operations of war, and at the level of the current mill a fort sheltering was a Dutch garrison. In 1614 was granted, by the State-Generals of the Republic of the United Provinces, the authorization to dam up and drain all the extent around Doel. This decision signs the birth certificate of the village of Doel under its current form, because, in addition to the installation of the marsh, was also begun the construction, planned on chart, of the village. The provision in checkerwork of the streets determined a Urbanisation geometrical, extremely rare in these latitudes. The square pieces thus formed were then built systematically, in such way that no garden was visible since the street; these gardens were (and are still) accessible by narrow corridors arranged between the houses and closed by wickets, that formerly one locked for the night.

Doel and the marsh of Doel a long time formed, in fact, a way of island, delimited by the Scheldt on the one hand, splits and mudholes on the other hand. The marsh of Doel extended on 1090 ha. The northern dam of the marsh of Doel, dams remaining still today, is the limit which separates the initial marsh from with the marshes arranged later on, and makes it possible to partly locate contours of this old island. Until the 17th century, Doel was in practice hardly accessible differently than in boat. As for the marsh of Saeftinghe, one renonça to dam up it, this marsh remaining thus a verdronken Land , a floodplain with the liking of the tides; at the present time, it is an ornithological reserve.

In the ecclesiastical plan, Doel depended on the parish of Kieldrecht and became an autonomous parish only in 1792. This same year, Doel was allotted to the emperor of Austria and had suddenly formed part definitively of the Netherlands from the South.

At the time of the events which surrounded Belgian independence in 1830, Doel undergoes the by-effect of the battle of Antwerp. In December 1832, the Belgians, helped of French troops, succeeded in forcing the Dutchmen to yield Antwerp, but, after having invested the polder of Doel, could not however dislodge the Dutch troops of the forts of Liefkenshoek and Lillo. A Dutch garrison thus continued to occupy the fort of Liefkenshoek, and that to the signature of a treaty in 1839. Doel became then an autonomous commune.

Starting from 1843 and until in 1945, Doel was the seat of the service of forty charged to control the ships going to Antwerp. The marsh increases polder Prosper (Prosperpolder, 1051 ha of arable lands), and, a few decades later, polder Hedwige (300 ha). At the end of the 19th century, two thirds approximately of the population doeloise lived agriculture, and a third had fishing for means of subsistence; in addition, a sugar refinery occupied forty workers.

Doel was released in 1944 by British and Polish soldiers. The village had however still to suffer from the loopholes flying bombs, from which 68 fell on its territory - 59 V1 and 9 V2 -, making 13 died and destroying completely or partially 35 houses.

In 1975, Doel amalgamated with some surrounding communes to constitute the entity of Beveren.

Demography

Remarkable sites and monuments

In the village, the streets are laid out in checkerwork, about single phenomenon in Belgium: the plan is composed of three streets parallel with the dam, and of four other streets which cross them with the perpendicular. This provision goes back to the decision, catch at the beginning of the 17th century after the strategic floods, to proceed to an empoldering and a regrouping of the grounds around Doel, and is remained unchanged since.

the agglomeration includes/understands several middle-class farms and houses. The oldest building is the Hooghuis (litt. high house, classified historic building), completed to build in 1614, in the Flemish style rebirth, with monumental door frame in style baroque. The interior is not without interest, with its ceilings in oak and two monumental chimneys baroques of the 17th century. The building was at the 17th century the seat of the administration of the polder, but was also the manor pertaining to from Antwerp middle-class rich person; Hooghuis is thus associated in the name of Rubens, this residence having been probably the property of Jan Brandt, father of Isabelle Brandt, the first wife of the painter, and, later on, of Jan Van Broeckhoven de Bergeyck, that Helene Fourment married in second weddings, after the death of Rubens.
the mill , classified historic building since 1946, is embedded in the dam of the Scheldt. It dates from the medium of the 17th century and figure among the oldest brick mills which account Flanders. Out of use since 1927, the mill is arranged today in bar-restaurant.
the parish church , dedicated to Notre-Dame of the Assumption, was built in neo-classic style between 1851 and 1854 according to the plans of Lodewijk Roelandt, architect municipal of Ghent. Furniture however includes/understands older works of art, such as statues of from Antwerp sculptor H.F. Verbruggen (17th century) and E.A. Nijs (18th century). The organ is classified monument since 1980. The church, damaged following depressions, was entirely restored between 1996 and 1998. The solid layers of the basement are located at Doel with approximately 11 meters of depth, whereas sheet pilings intended to support the building are inserted out of ground only of 7 meters. Currently, the church, in particular its bell-tower, are extremely leaning.
In the north of the village, beyond the nuclear plant, at the height of the hamlet Ouden Doel, is located along the Scheldt the last brackish mudholes which account Belgium. These mudholes shelter the small port of Prosperpolder and natural reserve Schor Ouden Doel (51 ha).
Doel has a marina , made up of a single basin with tide, and a landing stage where comes to accost the vat of Lillo-Fort, which carries out the crossing of the Scheldt every weekend from March to September.
Doel attracts many excursionists, in particular for the summer period. A singular event is the Scheldewijding (ritual blessing of the Scheldt), which takes place at the beginning of August each year since 1975. The festivities start with a mass celebrated in the open air. Then, the college of the aldermen (=adjoints to the mayor) goes jointly with the communal advisers to a moored boat, for the setting with the water of a crown of flowers in commemoration of the victims of the sea and river. The afternoon, after a naval spectacle on the Scheldt, a folk procession get going, joining together, coming from the surrounding villages, many groups and of associations with their giants and their musical companies. A walk with the torches encloses the day.
In the year 2000, a cogue (standard of deep-sea tradind ship, sailing with the the Middle Ages between the various ports of the Hanseatic League, in the North Sea and the Baltic) was put at the day at the time of excavation work for the construction of the Deurganckdok basin. The found wreck with Doel was hidden with a depth between -7 and -5 m under the sea level, in an old ensablé arm of the the Scheldt, known under the name of Deurganck (= passage, cf allem. Durchgang ), which formerly communicated directly with the river; for unknown reasons, the Cogue came to fail in this arm in 1404. The cogue of Doel (as it is from now on agreed to call it) measurement approximately 21m length and 7m broad; its preserved height is of 2,5m approximately. the dendrochronologic analysis made it possible to establish that the oak which provided the wood of the vessel was cut down in Westphalia during the winter 1325-1326, which makes this cogue one of largest, best preserved and the older of Europe. Once finished the repair work, the cogue will be (probably) exposed in the museum of the navigation of Baasrode, not far from the town of Termonde; but a model is right now visible with the bezoekerscentrum (kind of écomusée) open since September 2007 at the height of Liefkenshoek. A second cogue discovered with the same place, but less better preserved, date of 1328.

Doel threatened by the industrial expansion

Projects of the Sixties

The first projects of expansion of the wearing of Antwerp on left bank of the Scheldt go back to 1963 and provided that the whole of the polders of the country of Waas as Doel disappear to make place with basins and industrial grounds. In 1968, a prohibition to build came the village into effect. Following the economic recession of the Seventies, these plans of expansion were re-examined with the fall, and one saw appearing within sector (=plan of occupation of the ground) of 1978 the line known as De Bondtlijn (according to the senator Ferdinand De Bondt), line which went from is in west, and which, passing just to the south of Doel, limited the harbor zone of extension to the southern part of the polders. Prohibition to build was thus raised this same year. In first half of the Eighties was realized, in the south of Doel, the Doeldok basin, which however used forever.

The modern factory construction oldest with Doel was the nuclear plant, to 1 km in the north of the village, whose construction was started in 1969. It lodges four engines ( Doel I , brought into service in 1974, Doel II in 1975, Doel III in 1982, and Doel IV in 1985), like two turns of cooling of approximately 170 meters height.

Projects of the years 1990 and 2000

In 1995 were made public the projects of extension of the Administration of the inland waterways and the maritime businesses ( Administratie Waterwegen in Zeewezen ) of the Flemish authority, which projects envisaged installation, a little in the south of Doel, of a new basin for containers, named Deurganckdok. From the point of view of the realization of this basin, one put oneself to wonder about the vivability of Doel, and in the years which followed a keen fight began with like stake survival of the village. In 1997 was made up the committee of action Doel 2020, and the personalities known in Flanders, such as the former senator Ferdinand De Bondt, the scenario writer Frank Van Passel, and the three priests Luc Versteylen (founder of the Flemish green party Agalev), Phil Bosmans (writer) and Karel Van Isacker (historian) joined the protest movement. An opaque decision making and legal blunders gave place to great delays in the construction of Deurganckdok and maintained during long years a state uncertainty as for the future Doel. The inhabitants were divided into, on the one hand, those which wished to remain there and, on the other hand, those which on the contrary had made choice fight to obtain a payment of expropriation clear and equitable. June 1st 1999, the Flemish government decided, after a provisional modification of the plan of sector intervened in 1998, that Doel was to disappear from this plan of sector under zone of residence, always with the reason for the invivability of the village, qualifier challenged by the opponents.

After the change of government of the Flemish area in 1999, a study was carried out, on insistence of the green party Agalev, concerning the vivability of Doel after the completion of the new Deurganckdok basin. This study however did not call into question the modification of the plan of sector, nor the decision already made to make disappear Doel in the long term.

July 30th 2002, the Council of State suspended the execution of the plan of sector as modified, i.e. in particular comprising the requalification of Doel like industrial park. It is thus the plan of sector of 1978, which classifies Doel like residential zone, which keeps force of right. However, under the terms of the emergency Decree (Nooddecreet) or Decree of validation, adoptee on December 14th, 2001 at the Flemish Parliament, the Flemish government is entitled to deliver, for the construction of Deurganckdok, the licenses to build and to make them sanction by the Parliament. One discounted capacity by this way to circumvent the plan of sector. Nooddecreet was the reaction of the Flemish government vis-a-vis the suspension of work of Deurganckdok imposed by a decree of the Council of State; committees of action had indeed updated of the defects of procedure sullying the modifications made to the plan with sector. Nooddecreet, given that it interfered in the procedures in progress, and tended to circumvent partially legal protection of the citizens, is regarded by much as opposite with the principles of the Rule of law.

In October 1999 was nevertheless committed the construction of the Deurganckdok, which was inaugurated in July 2005. As of spring 1999 other projects had come to be known still, in particular envisaging a second large container basin, discussed the Saeftinghedok , which would be dug with the site even small agglomeration. The implementation of these projects remains however dubious. A decision on this subject is awaited as soon as possible in 2007.

Current location of the habitat

Since 1999, the inhabitants who wished it could be made exproprier. The expropriées houses passed to the hands of the Maatschappij voor Grond- in Industrialisatiebeleid van het Linkerscheldeoevergebied (land Management company and of industrialization of Left bank of the Scheldt, in summary Maatschappij Linkeroever ), however the expropriés inhabitants profited from a right of dwelling, guaranteed initially until January 1st, 2007. End 2006, the administration informed the inhabitants that the right of dwelling would be extended in a provisional way.

At the same time in 1999 a mediator social, charged was named putting at execution the plan of social accompaniment and with assisting the inhabitants who voluntarily leave the village. December 31st 2003 , this social plan came in its term. This manner of proceeding made it possible to return bloodless, in only a few years and without blow to férir, most of the village: May 1st, 2003 did not live any more in the center of Doel but 214 of the 645 inhabitants who were registered at January 20th, 1998. The real figure of population in the center rose however, at May 1st, 2003, 301. September 1st, 2003, the elementary school was closed after observation that only 8 pupils had been registered there.

Since then, if the official number of inhabitants continued its fall (more than 202 in March 2006), the real number gradually increased. That is explained, for small portion, by the arrival of new tenants in certain expropriées houses, and for major part by the fact why squatteurs had occupied the vacant buildings (the estimates range between 150 and 200). This state of affairs was tolerated a long time by the Company owner of the vacant houses and by the municipality of Beveren.

At the beginning of 2006, the media were again interested in Doel because of the great number of squatteurs. That contributed to spread in the public the idea that Doel to a certain extent had been moulted in a zone of nonright, where one could without problem adapt a vacant housing, which, in its turn, caused to attract new squatteurs and to cause a wave of burglings. March 22nd, 2006, the burgomaster (=maire) of Beveren announced that police controls would be intensified in Doel and that tolerance zero would be henceforth in force and any repressed illegal activity. Certain squatteurs however ask to regularize their situation.

Last adventures

At the beginning of September 2007, the court of the summary procedures of Termonde prohibited the demolition of residences in Doel. Maatschappij Linkeroever had asked for forty licenses of demolition, of which a score had been granted meanwhile. The Flemish government wishes that 125 buildings on the whole - that is to say approximately a half of the houses of the village -, already acquired by the Flemish authority, disappear from here the end of 2007; that of the remainder joined its decision to put a final time limit at the right of dwelling ( woonrecht ) in 2009: all the houses which thus have suddenly been vacant would be then demolished. However, some inhabitants of Doel, constant in that by the committee of action Doel 2020 had seized the court of Termonde in order to prevent the demolitions. Within occupation of the ground, Doel remains classified in center of population, the new plan of sector which requalified Doel in industrial park having indeed a few years before suspended by the Council of State. The president of the court judged that work of demolition would be detrimental to the inhabitants remained on the spot and would exceed the limits of the simple incommodation.

In addition, and in same time, a delegation of the inhabitants of Doel went to the the European Parliament to Brussels to protest against the programmed demolition of 125 residences. The delegation gave a request to the Commission of the petitions of the European Parliament.

Other villages with the similar destiny

Already in the past, several villages, located, these, on Right Bank of the Scheldt, were striped chart to make clear place with the expansion of the Port of Antwerp; they are Oosterweel, Oorderen, Wilmarsdonk and Lillo. Elsewhere in Europe also, of the villages made the implementation expenses of industrial great projects, p.ex. Altenwerder close to Hamburg (Germany); but the most massive evacuations are those which took place for the needs for the exploitation with open sky of a vast brown-coal bed in Rhineland-Westphalia, on the site of Garzweiler, where several villages were already destroyed and where the evacuation of more than one ten of other agglomerations, included/understood in the same vast perimeter, is envisaged.

External bonds

Random links: