After time had been standing still here for 30 years, we were the first who enter this forgotten house in a while.
This narrow building located in rural Belgium was home to a former banker who vanished into the night.
As it seems, he was doing some shady business.
He needed to run and left behind everything.
Since then, the abandoned house is preserved as a time capsule from a different era.
Join us on today's exploration while we search for clues to find out the owner's real story
in this small yet intriguing home.
For updates and photos of our adventures follow us on social media.
Belgium –
this small country with only 10 million people is the center of Europe.
It is known for its famous painters, delicious chocolate and waffles, bad beer,
and obviously a great amount of abandoned sites.
It has become the number one hotspot for the European urbex community.
Places are well-known and usually overrun fast.
But for a good reason:
Belgium’s derelict houses are fascinating and it is hard to find such sites in other countries.
This time, Marco was traveling without the crew.
While he was on a job in the Eastern part of the country,
he teamed up with two German photographers to explore a variety of abandoned places.
Some of them have been on the BWT bucket list for long and we failed here some years ago.
This time, Marco was able to bring home footage and the stories of those places.
Let’s begin with a rural exploration in the South of Belgium.
On a country road at the entrance of a small village, this old and inconspicuous house is located.
At first glance, it does not really look abandoned -
more like a typical Belgian home somewhere in the countryside.
But see for yourself:
This place has been abandoned for literally decades.
What you see here is the basement of the house.
It is a total mess nowadays - basically, like the whole house itself.
Just look at the entrance corridor of this skinny building!
Garbage but also personal items pile up –
and that is also because newspapers and promotional brochures
still get thrown through the letterbox of the door and end up lying in the corridor.
But there is no one to tidy up.
Those huge cobwebs everywhere show that we are probably the first people entering this old home in a long time.
Maybe because there is just nothing valuable left to loot.
Thieves have already taken the precious inventory and left behind chaos.
The home was obviously ransacked multiple times.
And it seems a bit odd but also kind of like a miracle that there are three rooms in this house
that still appear almost untouched.
And as we are entering these rooms it feels like a travel back in time.
This scene creates the impression that the residents of the building simply vanished into the night.
Maybe they were taking what was most important with them
but they left behind the furniture and all the other inventory.
And take a close look at that wooden furniture -
it is hand-crafted, vintage and seems like from a totally different era.
To find out any information about the people who were living here until 30 years ago,
you have to search the place very carefully.
We believe the owner of this place used to be a banker.
Or at least he was working in finance.
He was relatively affluent and was able to offer his family a good standard of living.
But maybe this small house was not enough for him.
Maybe he wanted more.
Everywhere in rural Belgium, you can find these châteaus.
And there is a chance he wanted a manor like that for himself and his family.
As a banker, he had access to a lot of money that was not his.
And maybe this explains why he disappeared in a rush -
he took the money, he took his family and together they ran to live a prosperous life somewhere else.
They do not need their old stuff when they have enough money to buy a mansion.
This, however, would be the happy ending.
But there is also a second but sad theory.
If you like our urbex photography you can find way more pictures on our social media.
We posted the links to Instagram and Facebook in the video description down below.
Clearly, a very religious family was living here.
There are Christian symbols everywhere -
like images of Jesus, crosses, and paintings.
The people living here were probably too God-fearing
to steal from their community and run away with the money.
What is more likely: An elderly couple was living here all by themselves.
And as they both passed in the late 1980s, they were without any heirs.
Or the heirs did not want the house because of the strict Belgian legacy law
and the horrendous rate of taxes connected to it.
And so the home once filled with life was frozen in time.
After 30 years of natural decay, this house remains a sad time capsule.
And it is still puzzling to us how places like this can even exist.
On his Belgium adventure, Marco was joined by @m.axxe and @lemmyw1nks –
two urbex photographers from Germany.
To see more of their pictures, visit them on Instagram.
As always you will find the links in our video description.
This was only one of Marco's adventures in Belgium.
If you wanna see more of them let us know in the commentsection.
For us this was a very special episode because for the first time an actual composer created the soundtrack.
Leo Sestili is an Italian pianist from Rome who offered to compose the music for an upcoming episode.
We thought this abandoned time capsule home and his music would be the perfect match.
How did you like the music in this video?
We for sure love it.
And if you wanna check out more of Leos piano work you can do so at his Youtube channel for example.
We put the links to his channel and Facebook page in the top comment pinned under this video.
So feel free to check him out and send him our best regards.
We will also post the full video without the voice over but music only to our social media in a few days.
It's gonna be great so make sure you don't miss it.
By the way, guys: We are reaching the 100,000 subscribers milestone fast!
In less than a month from now we have reached this massive milestone.
Thanks a lot for your great support!
We have thought of a special video as a thank-you we want to upload soon.
We are going back to some locations we were visiting several years ago to see what has changed.
One of them will be this untouched abandoned hotel that was featured in one of our most viewed episodes.
Help us reach that 100k and then let’s see how it looks today.
Next time on Broken Window Theory:
We are back in the wastelands to play a new round of our outdoor game Wasteland Operations.
An agent gets assigned a random mission he has to accomplish in this ghost town.
But two enemy security guards try everything to stop him.
In order not to get caught, the agent has to be stealthy and use a variety of gadgets.
Do not expect this to be one of our usual exploration videos.
This will be a thrilling and fun adventure!
So, what is your guess why this home was abandoned decades ago?
Do you have a theory?
And what do you think about the vintage furniture?
Share your opinion in the comments.
Also, follow both German photographers and also us on social media if you do not already.
Be safe but keep exploring.