The Region - A Profile

Until Julius Caesar conquered this part of Europe around 50 BC, the Zonnebeke and Passchendaele region was part of a large forest with small villages inhabited by the Menapian people.

Today Zonnebeke is a rural council district with a total area of 67.6 square kilometres and a population of 11,700. The council resulted from a 1977 merger of five towns - Beselare, Geluveld, Passchendaele, Zandvoorde and Zonnbeke - while the region itself benefits from rich soil and is focused economically on farming and horticulture, although some industry has moved in since construction of a nearby motorway.

None of it is far above sea level - between 20 and 64 metres - and a range of low hills separates the valleys of the Ijzer and Leie rivers.

What the Romans did was to bring roads, trade and watchtowers to the region. Forests were cut down and populations increased. There was an invasion by Frankish tribes and later came the Christian missionaries.

 Zonnebeke Town Hall before the war
The local rulers donated land to the Church in exchange for prayers and relics. The churches were built inside the fortifications of the mansions - the first church in Zonnebeke was built in 1072, Passchendale's in 1105. Roads connecting the various churches were built through the woods, with resting places and inns becoming the new villages.

Abbeys and wool

In 1112, an Augustan monastery was built in Zonnebeke, followed 21 years later by a Benedictine abbey on the border of Ypres and Zonnebeke. Both abbeys and two castles competed for wealth and power in the region during the prosperous Middle Ages, a lucrative period for the wool industry in the area. The wool industry had been created by the receding sea which meant the appearance of ideal wetlands for keeping sheep.

The Hundred Year War between France and England (1337-1453) hit the Ypres region and its cloth manufacturing industry hard but was followed by a long period of peace and prosperity. Then, in the mid-16th century, while the region was under Spanish rule, Calvinists came from the north and, together with insurgents, destroyed the possessions of the Catholic Church, an action known as the Iconoclastic Fury. Spanish repression was cruel and emptied the villages of the region.

 The church at Geluveld after the battle
At the beginning of the 17th century there was a large influx of French from the Artesia and Picardy regions.  Numerous conflicts between Spain and France turned the 17th and early 18th centuries into times of war and taxes, the forced billeting of soldiers, forced labour and requisitions of food. Famine resulted in Flanders.

'Reign of terror'

The Austrian rule between 1713 and 1791 was new period of peace and prosperity, but trouble came once again after annexation by France. Requisition, pillaging, the seizure of all possessions of the Church, new laws and compulsory military service led to an uprising known as the "Boerenkrijg" and a reign of terror.

When a short period under the rule of the King of Holland (1815-1830) ended, Belgium had been created and had become an independent country. It was the first country on the continent to follow England into the industrial revolution, although the region around Passchendaele and Zonnebeke remained agricultural.

The population increased to the point where people were forced to look for seasonal work across the border in France, until in 1914, disaster struck again and for four years the area was at the centre of fighting on the Ypres Salient. The low hills were strategic positions in times of trench warfare. In 1917 the Battle of Passchendale left a total of 460,000 men injured, killed or missing.

After the Armistice on November 11 1918, people from the area were reluctant to return to their homes. A return premium was offered as encouragement as many realised how great an effort it would be to start again from nothing, having already built their futures in other countries.

Although the total annihilation of the region constituted a radical break with the past, most of the post-war rebuilding was focused on recreating the past rather than on developing a new future.  The Church of Our Lady in leperstraat, designed by the architect Huib Hoste, was the first modern church of its type in  Belgium. The parsonage and a row of houses in the immediate vicinity were also designed by Hoste and, in a garden next door, visitors can see the results of archaeological research at the Augustan abbey.

Chateau rebuilt

Another building that required total reconstruction after the war was a castle owned by the aristocratic Iweins family and which was sited in the grounds of the abbey. In 1980 ownership of the council was transferred to the council and it was opened it to the public. Today it is home to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917.

For visitors to the region, the In-Flanders-Field car route (82 km) takes a course around the many ruins, monuments, cemeteries and memorials of the First World War, while on bike the Vredesfietsroute (Peace route, 44 km) also focuses on the War. There is a tobacco route of 50 km, a pilgrimage route of 40 km and a mountainbike trail of 38 km. The Polygon and Menokke trails cater for horse riders.

One new and less onerous route for visitors is a three-kilometre walk - the "Road to Passchendaele". This runs between the Memorial Museum Passchendaele and Tyne Cot Cemetery and provides an overview of the Battle of Passchendaele.