The City

Noted today for the fine architecture of its rebuilt Cloth Hall, the City of Ypres (Ieper) was a key player in the cloth trade of the Middle Ages. Commercial relations flourished particularly with England, and English refugees such as Thomas Beckett even sought sanctuary in the West Flanders region.

During the Hundred Years War, Flanders was squeezed between England and France and, in 1383, Ypres withstood a long siege by English troops led by the Bishop of Norwich. The 16th century was also a turbulent time because of the religious wars. Protestant refugees crossed the Channel to Sandwich, but after the victory against the Spanish at the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 a period of prosperity commenced.

In the second half of the 17th century the Westhoek fell largely into French hands. Louis XIV appointed Vauban, the distinguished military architect who also designed the defences at Le Quesnoy in northern France, to design complex fortifications for Ypres and these ultimately covered a larger area than the town they were protecting.

During the First World War Ypres was strongly defended by the troops of the Commonwealth but was almost totally destroyed by German fire. The rebuilding of Ypres was finished in 1967 with the reopening of the Town Hall.

There are more than 160 war cemeteries in the immediate vicinity.

In Flanders Fields Museum

The award-winning In Flanders Fields Museum is situated in the rebuilt Cloth Hall and is designed to be a complete experience for visitors. There are original films of the devastated city and the battlefields around it, songs, poems, stories and statements relating to the four years of war. The Christmas truces of 1914, the first gas attack, the experiences of the soldier in no-man's land, the work of the military aid posts and hospitals, and the reconstruction are all clearly depicted. Visitors are also able follow the fate of individual soldiers as they progress through the museum.

"In Flanders Fields" Documentation Centre

This centre is a repository for more than 9,000 books, 500 topographical maps and an extensive photo library, which includes more than 1,000 aerial geo-coded photographs of the Ypres Salient. The centre also houses hundreds of personal files as well as a vast collection of newspapers and magazines about WWI. The centre is open to the public every Wednesday from 8 am to noon and from 1 pm to 5 pm. Three specialist volunteers are vailable to assist visitors. Researchers can book consultations by appointment.

Documentation Centre In Flanders Fields
Janseniusstraat 9
8900 Ieper
Tel: +32 (0)57 239 450
E-mail: stedelijke.musea@ieper.be

 

St George's Memorial Church

Saint George's Memorial Church was built in 1929 in memory of the soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient. Designed by Reginald Blomfield in the style of an English parish church, it contains many poignant memorials. The small school next to the church was named Eton College and was intended for the children of the many British employees of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Yorkshire Trench & Dug-out

The war is still omnipresent in the Ypres area and not only in the landscape, with its hundreds of cemeteries, monuments and relics, but also "underground". This different type of "underground war" can still be found at depths of 60 to 70 centimetres, something the local population quickly learned when, in 1997, work began on a new industrial site beside the Ypres-Yzer canal. Unexploded ammunition, constructions and human remains were among the vast quantities of World War One material found.

By order of the Ypres City Council an archaeological team known as the "Diggers" worked ahead of the bulldozers. Since then, the bodies of more than 230 soldiers of three different nationalities have been recovered.

During this period the city acquired a small plot of land for the creation of an educational site by the "In Flanders Fields Museum" and it is through this land that the "Yorkshire Trench", dug by the British in 1917, passes. In close consultation with the archaeological team, the trench, including the entrance and exit of a "deep dug-out", was restored along its original route. A series of information panels and a plan of the dug-out provide the visitor with a graphic representation of trench warfare. At the In Flanders Fields Museum, a film, scale model and an interactive stand, including an exhibition of the objects found in the dug-out, offer a deeper insight into this fascinating and little-known aspect of the war "in the wet, wet Flanders' plain".

All rights to the images on this page are owned by the City of Ypres