Ypres is a city in the Belgian province of West Flanders. It is surrounded by the Ypres battlefields.
Ypres is a city in the Belgian province of West Flanders. It is surrounded by the Ypres battlefields, where many cemeteries, monuments, and war museums commemorate the battles unfolding in this area during World War I. After being destroyed in the war, many important buildings were carefully reconstructed, including the Gothic-style Sint-Maartenskathedraal (St. Martin’s Cathedral) and its hilltop.
1. St Martin’s Cathedral, Ypres
St Martin’s Cathedral, also called St Martin’s Church, is a church and former cathedral in the Belgian city of Ypres. It was a cathedral and the seat of the former diocese of Ypres from 1561 to 1801 and is still commonly referred to as such. At 102 meters tall, it is among the tallest buildings in Belgium.
2. In Flanders Fields Museum
The In Flanders’ Fields Museum is a museum in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the study of the First World War. It occupies the second floor of the Cloth Hall on the market square in the city center. The building was largely destroyed by artillery during the war but was afterward reconstructed. In 1998 the original Ypres Salient Memorial Museum was refurbished and renamed In Flanders Fields Museum after the famous poem by Canadian John McCrae. Following a period of closure, the museum reopened on 11 June 2012.
3. Menin Gate
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by the Imperial War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927.
4. Cloth Hall
The Cloth Hall is a large cloth hall, a medieval commercial building, in Ypres, Belgium. It was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages when it served as the main market and warehouse for the Flemish city’s prosperous cloth industry. The original structure, erected mainly in the 13th century and completed 1304, lay in ruins after artillery fire devastated Ypres in World War I.
5. Sanctuary Wood Museum Hill 62
The Sanctuary Wood Museum Hill 62, 3 km east of Ypres, Belgium is a private museum located in the neighbourhood of the Canadian Hill 62 Memorial and the Sanctuary Wood Cemetery. The museum was owned by Jacques Schier, the grandson of the farmer who founded the museum and owned the site of the museum since before World War I and left it as he had founded it. He was known as ‘Fat Jacques’ to generations of visitors. The museum has a collection of World War I items, including a rare collection of 3-dimensional photographs, weapons, uniforms and bombs.