December 14 2022
Doel on Europa Nostra shortlist for ‘7 most endangered programme 2022’
The village of Doel with its surrounding cultural landscape is on the shortlist of Europa Nostra’s ‘the 7 most endangered programme 2022’, along with 11 other endangered heritage sites from Sweden to Ukraine. The selection of Doel (out of hundreds of submissions) is of exceptional significance for several reasons.
From the jury report of Europa Nostra
The advisory panel of the 7 Most Endangered Programme notes: “A Europe without polders is unthinkable; that is why Doel is on the shortlist of the 7 Most Endangered Programme 2022. It is a microcosm of humanity’s relationship with the sea.” The advisory panel of the 7 Most Endangered Programme acknowledges that: “In the case of Doel, the local heritage in the broadest sense must be protected from the needs of large-scale industrial developments in the area. For this, sustainability and environmental choices will have to be made in the near future”. Read the full report in attachment. There you will also find more information about the other nominated sites, the further procedure, photo and video material.
Europa Nostra’s ‘7 Most Endangered Programme’
The 7 Most Endangered programme was launched in January 2013 by Europa Nostra with the European Investment Bank Institute as a founding partner and the Development Bank of the Council of Europe as an associated partner. The 7 Most Endangered is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, as part of Europa Nostra’s networking project ‘Sharing Heritage – Sharing Values’. The 7 Most Endangered programme identifies endangered monuments and sites in Europe and mobilizes public and private partners at local, national and European levels to find a viable future for those sites. The 12 most endangered sites have been shortlisted by an international advisory panel. This panel is made up of experts in history, archaeology, architecture, conservation, project analysis and finance.
Nominated by the Dutch Heritage Association Heemschut
In October, Heemschut – the largest heritage association in the Netherlands – nominated Doel as the most endangered heritage in Europe. That a Dutch member of Europa Nostra nominated a place in Flanders is highly remarkable and unseen. Heemschut wanted to show its solidarity, all the more because Doel has a great heritage value not only for Flanders, but also for the Netherlands. The construction of the polder and the village of Doel was realized with Dutch know-how. For centuries the village was partly Protestant, partly Catholic, due to the influence from the Netherlands. Bond Heemschut was founded in 1911 and has been active for the preservation of cultural heritage for more than 100 years. With its more than 5000 members, the heritage association is committed to the protection of valuable objects and areas. This work is done with the help of volunteers.
‘t Eylandt den Doel
‘t Eylandt den Doel is a centuries-old landscape in the polder on the river banks of the Scheldt, north of the port of Antwerp. The expanding port has threatened the village and the surrounding polder landscape since the 1970s. The seventeenth-century landscape pattern of the village and polder is one of the first manifestations of the grid pattern, a design from the northwest of Europe that even reached New York. The Beemster in North Holland has been declared a World Heritage Site for this, among other things. Nowhere is the development of the landscape of the Low Countries more visible than in Doel. The almost untouched primordial landscape of the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe is located next to a polder landscape with medieval, seventeenth-century, eighteenth-century and modern elements, which in turn is located next to a high-tech, twenty-first-century landscape of the port. In the village is one of the only stone mills on a river embankment in northwest Europe. The dike sequence of Doel is unique: nowhere in the world are dikes from so many centuries so close together, from the sixteenth-century Zoetenberm to the twenty-first-century Sigmadijk. Historical farms, barns and farm workers’ cottages and a seventeenth-century ‘house of plaisance’ show the development of wealth in the seventeenth century. The Flemish government systematically did everything in its power to acquire the land and buildings of the village and polder for the benefit of the expansion plans of the port of Antwerp. A strategy of active depopulation followed. The vacancy made the buildings – about a hundred of them with heritage value – receptive to decay, pillage and eventually demolition. The residents who did not want to leave organized themselves to fight this policy of demolition. It became a war of exhaustion that lasted for more than 20 years.
Legally rescued, but seriously endangered
After years of juridical battle, the village is once again an official residential area ‘with historical, cultural and aesthetic value’. But the Flemish government, which owns most of the historical buildings, still does not allow habitation. As a result, the buildings continue to deteriorate. In the meantime, people also want to realize so-called nature compensations in the polder, whereby large parts of the special seventeenth-century polder landscape are in danger of disappearing due to excavations and redevelopment of the landscape. Doel is still a unique place, located on the border between the Netherlands and Flanders, between the port of Antwerp and the polder. A place with a rich history, with plenty of potential for the local community, the port and the many interested people from Flanders and abroad who visit it every day.
For more information, please contact:
Europa Nostra, Sara Zanini, sz@europanostra.org, M. +32486589519
Europa Nostra, Joana Pinheiro, jp@europanostra.org, M. +31634365985
Heemschut, Karel Loeff, loeff@heemschut.nl, M. +316 21812323
Heritage Community Doel & Polder, Johan De Vriendt, info@egdp.be, M. +32479990671
More info:
Photo’s, e-banners & Video’s (in hoge resolutie)
