Ypres
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The Bellfry of Ypres |
Ypres (French, generally used in English;1 Ieper official name in the local Dutch) is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the towns of Boezinge, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke and Zuidschote. On January 1 2005 Ypres had a total population of 36,120
.The total area is 130.61 km² which gives a population density of 267.58 inhabitants per km².
During the Middle Ages, Ypres was a prosperous town with a population of 80,000. It was renowned for its linen trade with England. During this time, cats, then the sign of the devil and witchcraft, were thrown off the cloth halls, to get rid of evil demons. Today, this is commemorated with the Cat Parade, a triennial parade through town, depicting the history of the cat.
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Ruins of Ypres - 1919 |
The area around Ypres was the site of three major battles in
World War I. Because of the fighting the town was all but obliterated with much shelling from the Germans. After the war the town was rebuilt with the main square, including the noted Cloth Hall and town hall being rebuilt as much like the original as possible. (The rest of the rebuilt town is more modern in appearance.) The Cloth Hall is today a museum dedicated to Ypres's role in the First World War.
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Cloth Hall at night |
Ypres these days has the title of city of peace and has a close friendship with another town on which war had a big impact;
Hiroshima. The association is regarded as somewhat gruesome due to the undeniable fact that both towns witnessed mankind at its worst; Ypres was the first place where
chemical warfare was employed (actually this was at Steenstraete, a small area close by), while Hiroshima was the location for the debut of
nuclear warfare.
In the
First Battle of Ypres (
October 31 to
November 22,
1914) the British captured the town from the Germans. In the
Second Battle of Ypres (
April 22 to
May 25,
1915) the Germans used
poison gas for the first time on the
Western Front (they had used it for the first time at the
Battle of Bolimow on
January 1,
1915) and captured high ground east of the town.
The largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the
Third Battle of Ypres (
July 21 to
November 6,
1916; also known as the
Battle of Passchendaele) the British, Canadians and
ANZAC forces recaptured the ridge at a terrible cost of lives.
English-speaking soldiers in that war often referred to Ypres by the (perhaps humorous) mispronunciation "Wipers".
The landscape is littered with wargraves, both of the Allied side and the Central Powers. The countryside around Ypres is featured in the famous poem by
John McCrae,
In Flanders Fields.
Menin Gate
The
Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres is dedicated to the fallen soldiers in the immortal Ypres Salient during the First World War who have no known graves, and whose bodies are still buried on the battlefields around Ypres. Every evening since 1928 traffic around the imposing arches of the Memorial has been stopped while the
Last Post is been sounded beneath the Gate. This tribute is played in honour of the memory of
British Empire soldiers who fought and died there.
The ceremony was stopped by occupying German forces during the Second World War. It was resumed on the very evening of liberation —
6 September,
1944 — not withstanding the heavy fighting that was still taking place in other parts of the town.
:"Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
:The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?"
::-- Siegfried Sassoon, On Passing the Menin Gate
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Official website - Information available in
Dutch and limited information available in
English*
In Flanders Fields Museum1 The
Dutch language was restricted by the
French-speaking Belgian ruling class at the time of the
First World War so that as a result the French name was used by British soldiers fighting there—they however, pronounced it "Wipers," probably as a result of poor education in pronunciation of the French language rather than any deliberate humour.
