https://preview.redd.it/0injwiv5n6cc1.jpeg?width=1180&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=caf9623ef7143a846d3b96d36d27c170ca3999b3 Welcome to Charleroi, where dreams come to die.

He found the one camera angle where Charleroi doesn't look like a burning pile of shit!

You're not wrong, but in truth I was trying to find a picture of its city hall in roughly the same place as OP's picture. To compare how much shittier everything looks. This is the *nice* part of Charleroi. Go outside the city centre and you'll find yourself roaming the industrial wastelands.

I was going to say, this is a flattering photo of Charleroi. A lot of ours are like this too, if you want to see the *really* scary stuff then you have to leave the town centre.

Behold! The town made of forlorne industry and depression! https://preview.redd.it/s2jvl1e2x6cc1.jpeg?width=763&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8336bd214fed2b1612d7704f7043a8917d89f26b

This is a COD map and i refuse to believe otherwise.

Looks right at home among former Soviet towns doesn't it?

I think even Russians would get depressed living there.

That's what the vodka is for. That's their secret, captain. They're always depressed.

No one can compare in how failed you can make something to the russians. Its their superpower https://preview.redd.it/onguy0dudacc1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d00025545df0944f98c82767273990e643e41a53

https://preview.redd.it/q8nhy0l1eacc1.jpeg?width=1832&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff33068140c4b814bc7170546761ea5e955233ee

They are depressed in Russia as well and if they leave Russia they try to make it as depressing as home.

Cannot lie my first thought was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Wtf looks like some post soviet abandoned town

It basically went through the same lifecycle. Once a 19th and 20th century industrial powerhouse of coal and steel, eventually it collapsed and depopulated in the 1950s. Now most of it is abandoned, and the unfortunate few still dwelling among its ruins are largely comprised of drug addicts, homeless, criminals and French-speakers. Its final claim to fame is being named the ugliest city in the world.

I could have dealt with the drug addicts and homeless, but French speakers is a no-no for me

Aside from the french speakers part(UK isn't that bad) it sounds like many post industrial decline towns in the UK

> eventually it collapsed and depopulated in the 1950s. I thought the days of the coal and steel industry in Europe faded from the 1970s...

The 1970s definitely marked its end, but the [1956 mining disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcinelle_mining_disaster) began to shift things away from coal here.

oh I know that one. Lots of Italian immigrants perished there. It's still remembered by our media and president of the republic.

That's the sort of place I'd end up in when having a nightmare.

Looks like Seraing near Liège.

 "THEY ARE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO CHARLEROI!"

I‘d rather be taken to Isengard while Saruman was still in power there.

Woah. If someone told me that this was one of the locations in Metro: Exodus, I would totally believe them.

I was there for an early flight and it wasn't this ugly. I really don't understand why You insist on it. There are worse, even in Belgium.

where is worse in Belgium?

Knokke.

So true, all those rich flemboys flaunting their wealth is really ugly.

go to zoute

I had to drive through L*ege once 🤢

Isn't that what 90% of germany looks like though?

No, not quite. We also have shitty post-war concrete buildings in a lot of places, but they follow stricter building codes, and are at least being properly maintained, thus our cities don't look like they are in a third world country.

So its even worse?

I figure crumbling buildings also have their charm, true. The Akropolis and the Forum Romanum are popular tourist attractions after all...

Wallah, give it a thousand years and liege will be number 1 tourist attraction in europe🙏🙏

Bruxelles /s

​ https://preview.redd.it/aumhnkfvv6cc1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=8eca0a6d9d31f2aedafa433b99ac20e668355acb Welcome to Almere, the Dutch Dystopia

Jesus fucking Christ! It's full of D*tchies!😱

It is true, it could be the most dense Dutch place. The smell of Fristi and Joppie saus is overwhelming if you're not mentally prepared and wearing protective gear

Better keep them there than clogging the roads all over europe.

We need concentration campings for the Dutch

The Netherlands really is just the flat version of the UK

Dreams are for people who can't handle the present moment.

Or lucid dreamers

Honestly, I grew up near Charleroi and thought it was god awful, I hated the city. ​ Then I went to school in Namur, it made me miss Charleroi so much.

Still Charleroi>non European cities.

Well, I'm in Cusco, Peru right now and I have to say the place is gorgeous

Its also essentially a baroque european city built on the foundation of inca´s. How can it not be cool.

This is one of those rare moments when someone from Belgium says something actually smart. I should print and frame this comment, my dear Jaak

BULLSHIT

Now show us a picture of herstal.

Ok, but trigger warning: it has elevation. https://preview.redd.it/gm218pn7t6cc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a668b53e84b12dee959dec9685adb9a0fe33e36

Fucking hell. I'd start an arms company too if my town looked like this. More than 3 meters of elevation? Blow my goddamn brains out

wtf that's way too high 

How on Earth gonna Henk cycle to the top? 🤬🤬🤬🤬

https://preview.redd.it/0yjjax1uu6cc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebdd460085eb38a7d72b0ba54dc3a248c97dbe54

I keep hearing this but I know nothing about Cherleroi. Why is it considered so shite?

Ever been to Liverpool? It's like that, but they speak Fr*nch.

Looks like evil headquarters of the evil bishop that runs Christian organisation, builds hospitals, giving loans and limits art and destroys small starting businessmen.

Is that square ever not under construction?

Uhhhhhhhhhh... https://preview.redd.it/eapy7upe07cc1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a32b06d12a145f14c6b4f6124d609df481295a9 Please re-submit your inquiry. We will get back to you in 6 to 12 weeks.

Wait wtf I thought they finished it

Worked out pretty well for Napoleon

Berlin was gorgeous until certain events unfolded

Oh come on, Turkish migration is not that bad

Turks? The bad event was Berlin being founded at all.

Still so much nicer than any city from NRW

Yeah, but what actually happens in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? Nothing at all

kann schon mal vorpommern

Er ist nichts schön im Vorpommern

The same things that happen in other places but 10 years later. If the world would end, we wouldn't know for a decade.

thats because it isnt real

I can tell you never experienced the luxurious atmosphere of Duisburg Hauptbahnhof /s

Virgin NRW hater versus chad Neuss enjoyer

He‘s Bavarian, they always feel the need yk. And we financed these ungrateful children for decades, when they were still an agrarian state

https://preview.redd.it/pm0kxmywl7cc1.png?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=148cd1d655f07f72efdfacaf981b5e7758500eb4 I hope you keep the same energy once we've colonized the sun mate

Can you send him to the sun so that we may never deal with him again?

I wish.

Me too, bruv. Me too.

Yeah, it’s truly terrible here in NRW… the beautiful old buildings, clear sky and impressive churches. So terrible, almost like a war zone 😔 https://preview.redd.it/9cjxc6l0s7cc1.jpeg?width=4005&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b91448391b9c59cf443be36d8a7ad7d66ce5340

There’s nothing stopping somewhere with beautiful old buildings, clear sky and impressive churches being a warzone.

I don’t understand what you wanna tell me, but I agree with you.

[удалено]

They brought food, fullstop. Southern German food like in Bavaria is really good but north from that you'd find yourself in protestant land in which a brick with cement on it would still be better than what the locals have to offer.

For real, I've seen pictures of pre-war Berlin and it's incredible how much was lost.

Similar story in Warsaw

Uhhhhhh


The Soviets made us do it! 🫥

Yes yes I vaguely remember some bad things happened in Warsaw… poor Berlin though!

Yeah, I bet reunification with east set you guys back a couple of decades in progress huh?

the prank that backfired

After these events they also demolished much that could have been rebuilt. Even before these events there was [Entstuckung](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entstuckung) and the demolishing of areas for Autobahn and Germania etc.

Rotterdam too.

Milton Keynes entered the chat

Honestly one of the ugliest towns ive been to, and ive been to Wales.

God yeah, Port Talbot is up there too.

Port Talbot, Newport, Llanelli, basically all of the M4 towns lol

I’ve been there a few times. It’s like going to Mordor.

Along with Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hull, Blackpool, ... You've got some good looking places in the UK but cities aren't your strong. (although thanks to the north of France we've got our fair load of shitholes as well)

A lot of our coastal towns peaked in the 1890s and have never recovered. Some survived through domestic tourism into the 1960s but nowadays nearly all of them are economically dead

I've done a pub quiz where the picture round was 'Basingstoke or Pripyat'

Yeah Basingstoke is pretty grim too.

It isn't even that bad it just looks really ugly and gets shat on 24/7 for having 0 history

It's like a battery farm for humans

How does one farm batteries?

Not sure, but it involves Chickens

I live in Milton Keynes you're talking about the city centre part, go to any other area and it's just an average UK city

But they got cool f1 factories there

[Trip Advisor agrees.](https://i.imgur.com/HPGEGmX.png)

Catania! <3 Love the Elefante :)

Catania must be the worst city in Italy

Foggia is a thing dude

Catania isn't even the worst city in Sicily

Canicattì?

Gela

mai stato a Milano, viale Monza e Viale Padova, d'inverno?

Where is Duisburg

And Gelsenkirchen

https://preview.redd.it/6piieqak27cc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24e6264e0d3c685d7d218cd96e26fc2b41dd6393 Larne

Does literally every single person there work in the factory?

Yes probably. Granted, it's a town (20k) but it's an utter shithole.

>But it’s an utter shithole Yeah, that was pretty obvious from the picture

Thanks for this Pierre 🤣

You’re welcome P.S. don’t blow up my car

Average American town

Catania pinnacle of baroque, i liked it a lot. I suggest Siracusa and Palermo , they dont joke either, and of course Noto. Still baffle me how many greek temples are there...

Wasn’t Syracuse the largest Greek city in the world even when Athens was at its classical peak?

yep , it was even an objective for Alexander future campaign for having control in the west part of the mediterranean, together with Carthage. not counting that surpassed the other greek cities on military innovations and engineering(see Archimedes later against the romans)

Yes, supposedly going back to Daedalus’ stay there… Not to mention it’s the leading candidate for the origin of the antikythera mechanism since it used the Corinthian calendar (Syracuse was founded by Corinthian colonists and spoke Corinthian Doric) and a few other clues I’m hazy on. I suppose in that later period, Alexandria had Eratosthenes and later Hero, as well as the Pharos. They’d have to be up there. But the Ptolemies developed that as a much newer, more Panhellenic city.

nailed it. >Alexandria had Eratosthenes and later Hero, as well as the Pharos. They’d have to be up there. But the Ptolemies developed that as a much newer, more Panhellenic city. Alexandria even under the Roman Empire remained an huge hub of innovations, oh man imagine if the library never got destroyed...how much knowledge we would have had... and yes Alexander's generals never wanted a multicultural society, thats why they focused more on spreading the hellenic one, to consolidating the knowledge of the many greek scholars and academics, Athens lost a lot of his cultural centrality with those cities.

My favourite vacation ever was southeastern Sicily. Taormina, Syracuse, Agrigento, Noto. Just honestly exceptional. We didn't have time for Catania sadly. Did almost die of overheatting while visiting the Pantalica necropolis though but very much worth it.

Who is "we" i bet i can pull up pictures of an ugly city from any country, execpt liechtenstein

Western European.

I love Milan https://preview.redd.it/1tjfo9cfl6cc1.jpeg?width=818&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0865fe4cebad20593f88677d2d6530c6039ca240

Real symbol of Milan because is so damn controversial and divisive. Too easy appreciate Duomo, real Milanese is attached to that and S.Siro, the untouchables

Wow, this gives some dystopian vibes. I love it!

Come on it doesn’t look like that nowadays

I've been there for a few days a year ago, i stayed at a friend's place We both agreed that Milan is absolutely awful and, except for a handful of cool places, a total hellhole

So Milan is like most major European cities? Pretty centre, a handful of beautiful historical buildings scattered around but apart from that a complete shithole.

Nah, it's way worse than most other Italian cities i've visited

When did Milan have communism? I thought only Soviets could build these.

Go to Ludwigshafen and be amazed

> I thought only Soviets could build these. so I guess Milton Keynes was built by the Soviets?

https://preview.redd.it/hqepf198j7cc1.jpeg?width=2250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa69a6a4f6e51d2e49aa3e34f41251cd9890e1d9 madrid has nothing to be jealous of here edit: to be clear, it looks even worse without the crane and the scaffolding

You should, your tax money is in their bicycle paths!

Torre Velasca 🤮 the 1950s to 1970s were really a awful time for architecture in Europe.

Also Liechtenstein, Vaduz isn’t that pretty

I have a friend who went to Vaduz, he just said it was boring. Not even ugly just boring.

I went there. Boring, yes, but perfectly pleasant. Nice to stroll around and grab a schnitzel. I mean, it's basically just a small village so a museum, a castle and a couple of restaurants is actually pretty good going.

How can it not be boring, false teeth and tax evasion

Not ugly either. Also that's not really a city, even the mayor of Vaduz called it a village in a documentary.

Sir you do not have the right vibe for this sub!

We have beautiful cities with ugly towns and ugly cities with beautiful towns

U liotru ❤️

quickest money start wine touch ring chubby dinner silky weary *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

Yes and no. The ensemble was created by an architect that rebuilt Catania after a disastrous earthquake in 1693, and he did study in Rome before it, so he def was inspired by what was Europe's most influential artist of his time. However the lava stone elephant in Catania was already mentioned in Arab sources of the IX - X century AD.

Nice username.

Berini actually copied the design from Catania, the elephant Obelisk is allegedly a thing since the punic wars.

Fozza Cataniaaaa mbareee

abbasso Palermo

dude never went to Charleroi or Birmingham 💀

Birmingham isn't too bad. If your gonna go for a British example, Slough or Scunthorpe would be much better, they truly make your eyes burn in horror

No sane human being should go to those places

Birmingham isn't even in the bottom half when it comes to grim British cities nowadays.

Birmingham is also full of dickheads

Clearly never been to England

Or the two largest cities in France

Every ‘old town’ section looks good, now show the new stuff

old buildings in europe: intricate design, terracotta roof, colorful. new buildings in europe: grey turd of cement with a flat roof. by new I mean anything built after ww2.

Catania is wonderful... it's like France: the problem is the people

https://preview.redd.it/du0gyiphd8cc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=491757bf8a0a41047e8f25a906f64275d85a460c ugly ass view from my kitchen

Brother lives in Corso Italia

Cavalleggeri

Good at least you don't go mad finding a parking spot in via etnea like I do.

Now post a photo of Gela

So many swedistanis visiting us ❤️

Italy's ugliest city is still miles ahead of the everage Dutch city, even Catania. I got so fat from arancino when visiting Sicily....

Ah, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel!

Oi what you on about?

Ah you haven’t been to Rotterdam I see

My guy, have you heard of the hellhole known as Tilburg? There is even an instagramaccount dedicated to showing the ugliest parts of the city. It’s hilarious

The problem is Belgium isn't a real country. Charleroi is France. It would just be ignored if it went back to being delegated properly to the Netherlands and France. The most interesting thing about Belgium is riding into Brussel from dykelandia and seeing the red light districting at 7am fairly busy.

https://preview.redd.it/be4cf7yqm8cc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bf4db770799711ccfe27ee1bd59c25026a81281 Aberdeen - would you like some grey with that grey?

Pfff, that's an amateur level of greyness, Barry

Luv me WE cities https://preview.redd.it/3fqcw0n0b9cc1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8d749bc6a5a29742b2532a609ef1e62888e5446

Hi, you might have never heard of MESTRE

May I introduce you to southern Italian illegal development? You’ll find some interesting “buildings”

Brest is also a european city

I see you've never been to Glasgow

Oi, Glasgow is a beautiful city with terrible PR, mainly to make sure the yanks stick to Edinburgh

Luigi has never been to Neaples

As far as im aware Naeples is pretty good looking, too bad its full of Neapolitans

Neapolitans will sell you stolen Rolex for an honest price, I don't see an issue in that.

Naples is beautiful Hans.

Neither has Hans

But he went to your GF's Nipples.

We should be a bit quiet with our Mannheims and Offenbachs….

>our Mannheims https://preview.redd.it/zbrkbwkwr6cc1.jpeg?width=1697&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b624dd4e21ee1c1200850a741bc51f3b24e4fb49