Ghost village life

A plaque on the wall in the village of Lillo-Fort in the area of the port of Antwerp, commemorating the life of Theresia Eyer née Gorsen, who was born in one vanished village, and died in another. Were it not for this plaque, there would likely be no record of her remaining.

Allow me to explain.

The village of Oorderen is first referred to in 1116. 850 years later it no longer exists, havng been evacuated and razed to the ground in 1965 to make way for the expansion of the port of Antwerp. Where Oorderen used to stand is now the former plant of Opel Antwerp, now itself lying disused, and the Antwerp-North railway training station. Of Oorderen nothing remains; of the neighbouring village of Wilmarsdonk, also razed in 1965, a lonely church steeple standing alone surrounded by stacked shipping containers.


Lillo, meanwhile, also largely disappeared as a result of expansion of port facilities. The town was first known, by the name of Lindelo, in the ninth century, and in succeeding centuries became a thriving community. Until 1966, when the demands of trade took over. All that remains of Lillo now is the tiny centre known as Lillo-Fort, built in 1579 to strengthen the defences of the Scheldt river from an expected Spanish attack. Antwerp itself fell in 1585, but the fort remained in the hands of the Netherlandish resistants. You can still see the church, the former barracks and the gunpowder magazine, as well as this house, where Theresia Eyer-Gorsen's plaque is displayed.

The inhabitants of what remains of Lillo now number 30 -- and a lot of tourists.

So much for the passage of Theresia Eyer-Gorsen, from one vanished village to another, and thence herself to eternity. What do we know of her?

Maria Theresia Gorsen was born, as we read, in 1819, and married André Eyer, a customs official, with whom she had seven children. She earned the nickname Moederke Eyer (Ma Eyer) because of her advanced age. On her centenary in 1919 she received a parade and a visit from King Albert I. Five years later Prince Leopold, later to become King Leopold III, showed up, as mentioned on the plaque. Moederke Eyer died in October that same year. She was buried in Lillo cemetery, and a statue raised outside the church. The statue has moved to Lillo-Fort, and her grave was moved in 1960 to the Schoonselhof cemetery in Antwerp city, in the company of poet Herman De Coninck, writer Willem Elsschot, cartoonish Jef Nys and singer La Esterella.

And still the disappearances go on. Across the river from Lillo is the village of Doel, whose fate has also been declared to be to vanish to make way for further port developments, this time on the left bank of the river, where the potential for expansion is still enormous. Doel is in the news right now because of problems at the nuclear power station (seen in the photo from the Lillo side). Just south of the station is the village proper, where the residents and their supporters refuse to give in to the bulldozers. Their protests have been both physical and judicial, and the issue drags on. Unfortunately, the ultimate result is certain to be what the villagers fear, as their neighbours in Oorderen, Wilmarsdonk, Oosterweel and Lillo feared before them. In 20 years, Doel will be no more than some picture postcards, forgotten websites and blog posts like this one, and somewhere, perhaps, a plaque or a gravestone commemorating someone whose home it once was, but who is now, like Theresia Gorsen, exiled in death.

(Photo of Wilmarsdonk church by LimoWreck/Wikimedia Commons)