@@ThreeStarVagabond Maybe it is due to the contrast between expectation and reality. Put this city in some really poor country and it suddenly would look great :)
I went to Bor near nichninovgorod and it give a home feeling almost familiar... an industrial city, dirty street, Drug addict, alchoolic and homeless poeple. I was glad to come back to Charleroi. It was so sad because like my home city, this russian town has a beautifull community and good poeple ; not the demons that european news describe. There are mostly like us; poeple who just want to live a normal life but have hard time to pay bills.
Well, "the ugliest city in the universe" is what's said on the Internet. The Wolkskrant article is behind a paywall so I actually couldn't double check it myself. Guess you can't trust anything on the net, eh?
I come from Charleroi, I've spend more than 20y in this place. I've really enjoyed the way you've described my home❤ You are welcome back anytime! Congratulations and thank you for your work. Nice job ! Tanguy
This reminded me of Detroit, Michigan USA. Was a vrey important and large city in the 1950's. It is making a resurgance now, still a long way to go. Hopefully Charlerio will do the same. I enjoy your videos, very well done! Thank you!
Detroit would be fascinating to visit! I can imagine that there's a rich history there - and nice that there's a happy ending as well. Fingers crossed for Charleroi as well then. Oh, and thanks a lot :D
As a resident of Charleroi, this is basically that, we were the richest part of Belgium (even the world at one point) and then coal and the steel industry (Charleroi is a sister city to Pittsburgh) left and it went downhill, the city is starting the rebuild itself but they have to basically destroy a LOT of things first. Charleroi (and Wallonia as a whole) is very similar to the rust belt of the US
I grew up in Charleroi. In 1984, my dad lost his job and my parents and I emigrated to South France. I sometimes go back there and I am surprised to see how people make fun of the situation. Even if, I confess, it might be one the ugliest cities in the world, it is a place of humour and distance. People have fascinating capacity to escape from the daily life.
I could unfortunately not see the good aspects of the town when I visited quickly, but it doesn't surprise me. Every place has some good and some bad after all!
This reminds me of many cities in north of England. I personally find beauty in industrial areas. I like the contract of different types of buildings. That might be because I come from Manchester UK. Parts of Manchester looks like this but the history of these places are fascinating.
I have to say that I got a completely different vibe from Manchester and Liverpool, though. There were some run down parts in both towns, but both seemed a lot more...alive. But then again, it's not like I explored either town very much!
It s more aesthetically pleasant than the horrendous commercial zones that have blossomed in the periphery of French towns and cities for the last half century....
@@ThreeStarVagabond How about city of ŁÓDŹ, Poland. Second largest city in Poland 1945-2000., largest industrial city then, now a ghost town. While 1919-1939 second largest and most beautiful Polish city Was LWÓW, now in Ukraine.
They are expanding the light metro line M5 towards the newly build hospital in Gilly. They will use the allready build stations (renovating) and build 2 new stations. There is hope for CH.
As a belgian, i know Charleroi for quite some time and i have been visiting the city several times ...trust me, twenty years ago it was much worse ...little by little, the city is improving a bit but you are right about the center: it's a dead place with a lot of closed shops and abandoned houses ...
Really happy to hear that! And yeah the city center was pretty bad, but as long as things are moving in the right direction for the rest of the town that's really good.
@@ThreeStarVagabond the city suffered a lot during the 80's and 90's due to corrupt politicians ...some never cared about their city ...only since 2010, Charleroi started to improve
Detroit used to be very beautiful, and was one of the richest cities in the US and in the world, but took a real downhill turn and has a lot of abandoned factories, homes and other buildings. Charlerois is still mostly inhabited and is does not appear to be in the same league. They don't yet have parts of the city razed and urban farming and maybe haven't declared bankruptcy yet like Detroit. Also such cities may be competing in the number of bankruptcies over time, in the race to the bottom. China also has many mostly empty ghost cities like Ordos which could make such a list, especially once they start crumbling and lose their shine. There is not even a question of bankruptcy there, since there was nothing to begin with in some cases - the cities were built but hardly anyone moved in. Pripyat in Ukraine near Chornobyl you could consider as one of the top worst cities. Some parts of Johannesburg downtown have really taken a dive with a lot of abandoned formerly luxury real estate. Charlerois is still a long way off in terms of quality of life compared to some of those other places in terms of global ranking. There are also some cities in war zones which are in bad shape. Charlerois is in a good location and could be still turned around with better administration and business initiatives, free market reforms, etc. It seemed quiet in Charlerois from the video without any riots. Paris is a city in with some of the worst problems in Europe, with frequent unrest according to what I read. There is small elite in control still but much of the city is quite volatile, and the police need the support of the military. That is a sign that the civilian authorities are losing control. In the past in Detroit the police have given public warnings to visitors. Those are signs of some of the issues facing those cities. Caracas, Venezuela might be more dangerous to go out at night than Detroit, but it might not be as run down with fewer abandoned buildings. There are probably a lot of other worse cities than Charlerois, Belgium, so calling it the worst in the world is more like a simplistic joke on them than being realistic. To be the worst is not something to strive for. How about Havana, Cuba with all of its crumbling buildings, poverty and lack of electricity ? There were a few remote cities in the Russia which were used as gulag prisons during the soviet period which might still be pretty miserable as well. Mariupol in Ukraine though probably could top the list in its current demolished and depopulated condition. It is like a modern day Dresden situation - just levelled to the ground in many places and hardly anyone of its former nearly 500,000 population remaining - basically a whole major city practically wiped out just a couple of years ago. Mariupol is a significant historical tragedy. There are a lot of smaller frontline cities and towns in Ukraine which are badly damaged as well like Bakhmut.
I absolutely agree - the whole "ugliest city" thing just came from a poll in a Dutch newspaper after all, and then people jumped on that bandwagon. But I'm really curious about visiting some places like Detroit or Chinese ghost cities at some point. I'd love to be able to explore all places like that, but I'll go where I can for now at least. Ukraine is also someplace I'd love to visit, but that feels a bit...unwise now.
I went from holland to france and needed to pass trough charleroi. Quit a shock where we drove trough in the ring of the city. On one side big old dirty factories. The other side had houses all in different shapes and sizes and made with dark ugly building materials. Gave me a real gritty impression.
I just took the train to Charleroi, but I can imagine that you saw some really run down things driving through! Such a fascinating place...if one is into stuff like that, of course...
It's definitely rough-looking but has potential. The pedestrian areas could actually be nice with some restoration. But I suppose every town in Europe has these kind of spaces so there is no particular incentive to renovate this one. We have no such town centers in America.
That's an interesting observation... I've never really considered that town centers aren't much of a thing over there. Guess the layouts of the cities are so built up around a car-based infrastructure.
It's interesting that remnants of old beautiful facades and decorated town houses are still there, but surrounded and either spread out or squeezed in by brutalism and modernistic architecture. I wonder what it looked like in the beginning of the 1900s
It probably was quite gorgeous. And it's a pity that a lot of the town will probably be replaced by modern architecture whenever they have the resources, instead of restoring the buildings.
That place reminds me of New York City.. on film they mainly show you new buildings.. but the outlining zones and even Manhatten have so much mixed broken down looking red brick buildings
That's such an interesting observation! I've been to NY but that must have been....early 2001. And I mostly just visited Manhattan. I can imagine that it's changed a lot by now. And I really want to see more of the surrounding city next time...
@@ThreeStarVagabond you could visit upstate New York and see the Adirondack mountains. Then you could make a video on the most beautiful places in the world 🌲🌲🏕️🌳🌳🦌🦅🐿️🦝🐺🦊🐻🦆 pure nature that is rare in the world..Old growth forest.. absolutely no fake pine plantations...so you wouldn't see boring ole pine trees everywhere 😄
@@nathanpattee1629 I sense a completely unbiased opinion here :D But yeah, I'd love to see the northeast in general - but unfortunately I'll have to wait just a bit more for that. Haha, I just find more places to go all the time!
Hey, it was so nice to meet you guys - and thanks for leaving a comment as well :D Happy to hear that you didn't feel like I made a botched job out of presenting Charleroi
What strikes me about all these RU-vid bloggers and influencers is this - I know many do not film “ people “ out of respect of privacy, but wherever you go these days, there seems to be a lack of activity, no people out and about, no children playing, - has gotten worse since CONVID….😢😢😭 so sad, but we are in the end days
I must admit it’s never been on my top ten list of places to visit and now after seeing it, well I don’t think I’d ever go there. The problem like you said is the unemployment rate, when there’s no income it’s hard to contribute to the economy. I love old abandoned building, but like you said they were apart of a industrial boom for them and when the need went away they dint restructure, instead they just closed and the down fall begins for a city, what a shame. Thank You for the tour, stay safe till next time
Yeah, it's not really a tourist destination after all. It's a shame to see the city fall to decay like that - but it's really nothing new, or nothing unusual either. Unfortunately! Still, I hope that things will be better, and that this title of so-called ugliest city can be just a funny memory later on.
Loved this one. Very interesting seeing a European rust belt. I think some people in the U.S. have this thought that all of Europe is some idealized space, with only certain places seeing blight. It was fascinating seeing how parts looked similar to rust belts, here, but then...much older building and murals.
A lot of Europeans see American cities as vibrant places with lots of space and affluence, while they see their own cities as old, run-down and cramped. It works both ways.
@@bobd7307 I figured. I had friends who idealized Europe as this perfect, wondrous place where they would go "find themselves." They apparently never watched movies made in Europe showing run-down areas or really researched their dream.
As an Albanian is beyond my comprehension that one of the most developed European countries leaves one of its largest cities into such disrepair at least our country has the alibi of a brutal 50 years communist regime and a seemingly never ending and messy transition. This looks like a city not built for humans but for “useful” masses and for soulless functionalism. There are a few very similar northern England cities.
I've yet to visit Albania, so I can't really say much about the architecture there. But yeah, it's definitely a different comparison given the history of the country! I've heard that Albania is beautiful in other ways though
@@ThreeStarVagabond oh yes the nature is beautiful I mean you have alps half an hour away from beautiful beaches. Some cities have been thankfully left untouched from the early medieval times and Tirana itself it’s a very interesting mush mash of fascist, communist, Austrian, ottoman architecture and later day high riser towers and the previous mayor (who is now prime minister) was obsessed with colora and he painted the pre 90s apartment blocks in bright colours or commissioned graffiti artists to work on them. I actually find Tirana quite fun and dynamic and I recommend you visit. But there are some cities in central Albania stuck in the 60s 70s soviet style architecture in desperate need of updating
@@aureliogj7966 That really sounds fascinating! I need to make a road trip around Albania (and possibly some surrounding countries) one of these days. There's so much history and so many stories to be found about the entire Balkan area.
when i went to Charleroi and made my own video vlog, i never got harassed by anyone for filming or nobody begging me for money, i hate it when people approach me to ask for money ever since that one incident i had in Ghent.
Ouch. I'm not very fond of that either - I very rarely give money, and I was yelled at by someone in Austria for not wanting to give him money. But happy to hear that you didn't have any issues in Charleroi! Some kids actually asked what I was doing and chatted a bit.
@@ThreeStarVagabond most of them will use it to buy drugs anyway, so i ain't gonna give my hard earn money for people to buy drugs with it -_-, and about the filming if someone gives attitude i just say a it's free country and im in public so get hell out of my face before i start yelling police.
@@Drago1995 Fair point! And I do my best to try to respect people's privacy and so on. Different countries, different cultures when it comes to filming etc. But sometimes it's just impossible to please everyone.
Haha, yeah I think Charleroi's reputation is quite a bit overblown. It's not a great place - but there are tons of others that are worse. It's not a town I'll return to, but I might not even want to go to some of the US cities in the first place...
Watch the video this morning, and saw the sad news this evening 😢 my heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims. Hope you and your loved ones are ok. Richard
When I read this comment I hadn't read the news all day so I had no idea what had happened. It's a sad day - feels like I could have had better timing with posting things about Belgium. Thanks for the thoughtful message!
@@ThreeStarVagabond I would say that your posts will help to remind people that Belgium is a great country. We should not let the actions of a few mindless idiots ruin it for everyone else.
there are historical factors that might contribute to the negative image, on top of those mentioned in the film. The Marcinelle mining disaster of 1956 was the worst in Belgian history, killing almost 300 (about half of themItalian). In the same annus horibilis was one Marc Dutroux born, the most (in)famous resident of the same Charleroi district, a child rapist and murderer only arrested and sentenced after a really embarrassing series of blunders and omissions on the part of Belgian police and judiciary.
Hi, I lived in charleroi most of my life. Not sure if it's the ugliess city in the world but it was not like that 40 years ago even if the feeling of sadness and depressing athmosphere were always there. For the modern decline, It became especialy worst since the economical crisis of 2008 where we felt a huge change in citizen economic power. Poeple who can afford to moved out of Charleroi did it and the city decline is worst and worst as many house became empty and his citizen became poorer. With all the successive crisis that Belgium suffered (political, economic and cultural), many cities are bankrupt ; Charleroi is one of them.
Thanks for some extra context to the situation! I did hear someone mention that Charleroi was doing better these days though - so maybe it's hit its rock bottom and now the only way is up!
@@ThreeStarVagabond It is doing better because of a regain of work available and european funds for city renovation but there still so many serious problems to resolve. (per exemple one that a really concerning, drugs dealers and mafia who flood the cities since 5 years). Bruxelles and Anvers are worst on this aspect as drugs wars took place weekly where police do they best but are poweless).
@@MacMich21 Oh that's really sad to hear. We have problems with organised crime in Sweden too these days, and it's really difficulty to improve - but I can only imagine how difficult it would be to fix in a city that's had such a downturn...
@@Ripleyripper Haha, I can imagine my faux pas otherwise. "What the heck is Charl-woaa?! Take your stinking European language someplace where it's wanted! Here we speak American!"
It's like my city, Łódź. I even went to some lantern to put on sticker of my club, ŁKS, and I discovered that someone did exactly like this some time ago, on exactly same lantern that I planned.. Im sure he had the same images of our city like me when we walked those streets.. it's not bad city, I mean.. it IS bad, but it has character as well, it is not that boring.. for example Groningen in the Netherlands is far more boring to me.. also Rosendaal, this is more like town, but gosh what a boring hole... Charleroi has some spirit, at least in parts of it
That's a really cool way of looking at things! I agree that it's better when there's character and things happening, than when things are boring - but Charleroi also has a bit of a problem with unemployment etc. So, things could certainly get better even if the character remains!
Charleroi is changing but it takes time... Not everything is bad in Charleroi. Don't forget that we have an industrial past rich in metallurgy, glassmaking and coal mining!
It's a very ugly city but I guess there are thousands and thousands uglier cities in the world, eg. in Russia, the US, UK, former East Europe, Africa and Asia and even Europe. BTW: the city has only about 200K inhabitants.
Oh no! It was the district around Charleroi including the city that had 400k. Damn, I should have noted that it didn't look big enough for that number. But yeah, it's not a nice looking city - but there are tons of others that are worse.
Hi from the Belgian Ardennes. I'm not certain that is the only ugly, or the ugliest, city of Europe (not to mention the world) but it does have a bad reputation in the rest of Belgium. I've been through it a couple of times, and that's indeed a rather depressing place; but some of its "green suburbs" are rather nice.
That's really interesting, to hear a Belgian's view. I can imagine that it's actually a bit better in the suburbs. I went past a really nice little spot on the way to the IM powerplant - but I was still a bit shocked that the city center itself is so run down. Both from the looks of it, and from the....general feeling.
I've just been to Liverpool and Paris out of those, but I don't really think they compare. However, I have heard really nasty stuff about many of the old industrial towns in both the UK and Germany - so it might definitely be true for those others..
Reminds me of my home town Sheffield. The Steel City. Then the steel went and it feels depressed somehow although it’s still better than this place by the looks of it. Plus Sheffield is the greenest city in Europe by trees per population.
Hey, that doesn't sound too shabby at all for a place called The Steel City. Interesting turn of events, to end up that green instead... Hm... I wonder if anyone's made a list of cities by greenliness...
I had never heard of this city before this video You should make videos of all the ugliest cities in each European country Then again you might become too depressed :(
Modlin, Poland is a far worse airport than Charleroi. No places to sit, bad toilets, very strict security check, waaaay overpriced shops, when outbound. When inbound: no direct connection to Warsaw, Just the bus to other parts of the Modlin, and then the train. Not so far, but the roads are in awful condition, and the bus is always running way overcrowded. Charleroi is very quick, with toilets in good condition, a better shop selection, with more affordable prices
Yeah I guess I found Charleroi a bit lacking in facilities but it really wasn't all that bad after all. Then again, no airport is particularly pleasurable to spend time in
There are many cities uglier than this in the USA. And, have you ever been to Caracas? Creepy, in spite of the lovely natural setting. Is Charleroi the ugliest in Europe? Perhaps. Then again, the UK has a few strong competitors. And, I’d bet that Albania, Moldova and Romania have some strong contenders too.
I definitely imagine that there are many much worse cities! Unfortunately I've never been to Caracas - not yet at least. The whole "ugliest in the world" bit is really exaggerated and just based on that one poll after all.
@@ThreeStarVagabond The centre, yes- I don't know much about Glasgow outside the West End but parts of Mcr and much of L'pool outside the central areas are still similar to this, if not worse.
@@anonUK Guess I mostly saw the central parts. But then again - these shots are from the center of Charleroi. Literally right across from the train station. So it's not like I had to look very far...
@@ThreeStarVagabond Have a look at the Peter Degnan photos of Glasgow in the 70s. Much the same story as Charleroi, Namur and Lille, as well as Manchester, Liverpool, Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc.
It appears ugly in your video because along with the decay and unfinished construction areas, not a single building matches with the other or complements the other.
I didn't really notice the same thing in Brussels. To be honest, I found it quite a lovely city - but maybe it depends on the time of year when you visit...
@rtraccquet : That has nothing to do with unemployment. Most of them are professional beggars, like in many touristic cities, gypsies coming specially for that from Eastern European countries. Plus some economic refugies from Syria or Afghanistan or African countries.
Lol well I suppose if you don't consider the UK to be part of Europe...otherwise most cities in the UK and many if not most parts of London are uglier.
Si, el Rey Carlos II de España era enfermizo y feo pero fué un buen rey. Luis XIV se casó con la sobrina de su madre M.Teresa de Austria. Su madre Ana de Austria, ambas princesas de España.😊 Luis XV primo hermano del rey de España.
@@ThreeStarVagabond it reminds me of Liverpool in the 80's. The city of Liverpool has had a renaissance in recent decades and many previously unoccupied buildings are now offices, apartments, hotels etc and it now it's a really nice and interesting city centre full of things to do. This city just needs some TLC
Have you never been to Germany? The post-war landscape is absoulutey hideous. Any city north of 15,000 people was bombed back to the stone age. Now it's all drab and and even the modern stuff resembles just lego blocks. I should know, I live in the Ruhrgebiet.
The Ruhrgebiet is definitely not the pearl of Germany. But to say that all bigger cities in Germany aren't nice at all tells me that you've never really travelled in Germany. I can name 100 cities in Germany that are beautiful. To be honest, most of them are outside of your state though 😅
Sorry, but you apparently never got out of the Ruhrgebiet and visited other cities in Germany. ;) Many bigger cities in Germany are quite beautiful, actually, take Munich or Hamburg for example. And then there are dozens of middle-sized cities that are among the most beautiful in Europe, like Heidelberg, Bamberg, Regensburg, Schwerin, Lübeck, Görlitz...
Oooh that would be so much fun! Then I could cover all the nasty stuff while making up bad limericks, like: There once was a city quite shitty Where people were hard-boiled and gritty Irish delights Like shootings and fights Well, that's what you get in Stab City
This looks like any other (bigger) city in Europe. Not anything what the term "ugliest" deserves. No. I would say that city looks good. Never ever the ugliest city in the Europe nor the world. lol 😂 Where you've been before? Only in Copenhagen or Prague? Set your priorities right, buddy. I would like to live there in Charleroi, Belgium. Really :)
If you really want to start to get the idea of what "ugly cities" really look like, you should get out of Europe for a while and start traveling to some other parts of the world.
Hmm.. I've been to Taipei twice but I didn't really find it all that depressing. But then again, I never had much time to explore it except for some dinners and visiting Taipei 101 etc...
Posto orribile , un offesa x una nazione che ha Brugge Antwerpen, leuven , Gent .... Va solo bene x atterrare col volo low cost e prendere il treno x Brugge 😂😂😂
Thank you! Yeah that title is really exaggerated when it comes to Charleroi. I'd love to explore both pretty and ugly cities in the US actually! I bet that'd be really exciting
