Chatillon Car Graveyard in Belgium

Dec 19, 2012 37 comments

Right in the middle of a small forest near Chatillon, a little village in Southern Belgium, is a graveyard of abandoned and beautiful rusty cars. These cars once belonged to US soldiers who were stationed in this region. It’s not known how they managed to acquire these beauties in the middle of the war. When the World War II ended, all military troops were sent back to the US, but the cost of having all those cars shipped was way too expensive. The ranking officers decided to leave all the cars in Belgium. The cars were driven up a hill, one by one, nicely parked and somehow hidden from the outside world.

Once back home in the US, the soldiers who wanted to retrieve their car had to take personal responsibility for all costs of the shipping. Not a single car was retrieved.

At one point there were four car graveyards around Chatillon, and as many as 500 vehicles. Only one remain today. Over time, corrosion and decay have worn down the vehicles and what little remained were stolen by the locals and car collectors.

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via Behance

Comments

  1. Good old military inefficiency - why not just park them with the keys inside? No, let's go ahead and trash a nice forest.

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    Replies
    1. no problem... the forest is clearly winning :-)

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    2. What beauties lying there
      What a site it must be really
      And when all of them were still in their Green
      Beautiful Collection for sure

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  2. The car bodies are mostly stemming from the 1950′s and 1960′s, put and left there as remainders from a close-by US Army base.
    I heard though that at least one of the two remaining spots has been cleaned out meanwhile. Too bad actually…















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  3. very nice , the colors and more .

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  4. Why haven't they sold the cars to locals?

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  5. These cara are all from the 1950s and 1960s, and have nothoing to do with the war. And US servicemen in Germany either take their cars with them, in case they are US-spec, or sell 'm. This is simply a Belgian car graveyard, and has nothing to do with American military.

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    1. Thankyou Martin, who writes this crap, do they live under a rock? Or worse still, think we do?

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    2. I live in Belgium and I've been looking for CHATILLON. It seems this town doe not exist in Belgium !

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    3. It does exist: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2tillon_(Belgi%C3%AB)

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    4. I was thinking those cars looked like they were from the wrong decade to be from WWII.

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    5. Well I leave near it, it exist and the description is quite right but not fully right.
      The 1rst time I heard about it was in Normandy at Sainte-mère-église from a French Harley-Davidson dealer that knowed the place since the mid 60ies (he is fan of us car and stuff) he was going there at the time to get part for his clients in France. The owner of the graveyard was servicing car from US military deployed in Berlin. So yes it has something to do with military. The place is private and forbidden to public, not like you could easily sneak there. But it is real, it is in Belgium and it is close to Luxembourg.

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    6. Of course it exists, I live near Chatillon.

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  6. I live in another Belgium with internet enabled and look what I found:
    "Châtillon (Gaume in Tchekion) is a section of the Belgian town of Saint-Léger, located in Wallonia municipality in the province of Luxembourg of Belgium".
    Courtesy of Wikipedia.

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  7. Actually, the first commentor is correct. You see, the United States developed their first time travel machine at the end of the war and transported various vehicles (VW bugs primarily) to intimidate the Nazis into capitulating. It wasn't the Russians on the doorstep that ended the war - it was a full infantry division of futuristic cars closing in on Berlin. And of course, as America is the root of all evil, the vehicles were abandoned in the forest. As we learned in school, this initial build-up of rust in the forest from those very vehicles was the root cause of greenhouse warming. Darn Americans.

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  8. The cars are clearly from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Mostly 50s, therefore NOT from WWII. The author, like most of the world, wants to blame the US for it's problems. Geeze, if you're going to write a story, check the facts or at least alter your lie to coincide with the evidence presented.

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  9. the graveyard no longer exist. only tyers and small body partes are still there. I am curouse what did they do with all of these cars. this is very sad anyway

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  10. Definitely not cars from the 30s or 40s with the exception of a few. Some look 50s up to the big, long cars of the 60s.

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  11. Who the hell can't tell the difference between a car from the 40s and the 60s?

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    Replies
    1. Anyone interested in cars I guess...

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    2. Any car nut can ... I see a Ford, 49, 50 or 51, can't tell them apart from that angle ... a '56 Chevy .. what was once a beautiful mid 50's Lincoln Mark I, a real waste of one of the most gorgeous luxury cars every built

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  12. The owner of the cemetery has been summoned to clean up this graveyard or he would be fined with 250 euros for each car that was left behind. The owner said he inherited it from his father who has sentimental reasons for not disposing his cars. The community was not aware of its existence until Google Earth revealed it. So, it had nothing to do with the cold war or any other war. Just a (former) dumping place for cars, as they've been cleaned out.
    http://archives.sudpresse.be/saint-leger-environnement-les-cimetieres-ont-ete_t-20100628-H2JRHU.html?queryand=chatillon

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  13. Thanks for the clean up and history information! I'm glad we got this all straightened out! Good job!

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  14. Wwe live nearby and yes it was from the war. its just that more service members over the years have added later models and the older cars have been stolen mostly.

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    Replies
    1. Hi! I'm curious. Maybe you can help me with this.. Does it still exist, and is it accessible for public that you know of?

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    2. Wonder how many people were conceived in the back seats of those old cars?

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  15. I bet there's been a lot of hanky panky in the back seats of those old cars.

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  16. Yes, it still does exist. However,it is PRIVATE PROPERTY.
    Location: Rue d'Ahérée 15, Saint-Léger, Belgium. You will have to crawl through Ivy to get there. It is a beautiful yet eerie site. I was there in July.

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    Replies
    1. You where inside the property? Is it possible to have a permission to get in?

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  17. Im from Brazil and I really would like to visit it. Does anyone nows how I can get in? Is it possible to ask for a permission? Thank you.

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  18. For the guy from brasil.Its on the other end of belgium.I wil try to find the owner and the way to get permit.As soon i wil send you comments and if worth the travel.

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    1. No, it is not. I was there 2 days ago. The graveyard is completely cleaned out of wrecks, one thing I found and took as a souvenir was a side car metal band, from 50-60 ties I guess. So, to visit the place is cool, to see the cars unfortunately no more. Greets.

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  19. can I have info for where it is as I still would like to visit this amazing place.

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  20. there is now a book about this place
    http://chatillonbook.com/

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  21. I see 2 1975 beetle and a 70s Opel Kapitän. I see the rear window of a Simca 1000 from 1963.

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