Your Holiday in Ypres

Things to do in Ypres

Ypres is a Belgian Flanders town with wonderful architecture.  Ypres is best known as the site of 3 major battles of the First World War.  The most famous is the Battle of Passchendaele which took place between July and November 1916. The many memorials and cemeteries of the fallen draw thousands of visitors each year.

After the First World War, most of central Ypres was rebuilt. This was a lengthy process: the famous Cloth Hall was not completed until the 1960s.

Ramparts War Museum.  The museum contains life-like decor with original material and site discoveries.  You walk along wooden planks which form a reconstruction of trenches and tunnels.  You see, hear and feel the horror and insanity of the First World War.

Kattenstoet - The Cat Parade has become an annual tradition with many milestones: important, even royal guests, guest appearances of twinned cat towns, the introduction of the Snoezepoezen (cuddly kitties), Eurovision broadcasts, new floats and new groups.  The ‘91 parade was the last annual parade and the first of the three-yearly events.  From 1959 through to 1989, a Cat Queen and her maids of honour were elected.  The giant cats Cieper and Minneke Poes have since been given new costumes.

Must See Landmarks in Ypres

The truly gigantic Cloth Hall overlooks the Market Square, the political and economic heart of Ypres.  This beautiful and imposing medieval Cloth Hall of Flanders was carefully rebuilt after its demolition in the Great War.  In the past, the building was used as a covered market hall for the famous cloth of Ypres, the product on which the success of the city's economy was based.  There are several statues that decorate the facade of the Cloth Hall.  A lot of the original statues did not survive the Great War.  There are also statues of King Albert I and his wife, Queen Elisabeth, who opened the reconstructed belfry tower in 1934.  In and around the Cloth Hall are a lot of remaining old statues and parts of the original building that can be seen.  After the destruction of Ypres in the First World War, the town hall was meticulously reconstructed from 1934 until 1958.  Inside the Cloth Hall is now the Flanders Fields Museum.

The Ypres Menin Gate is perhaps the most visited Great War Memorial on the Western Front.  The Menin Gate marked the start of one of the main roads out of Ypres, towards the front line and tens of thousands of men must have passed through it, onwards along the infamous Menin Road, many of them never to return.  Every night of the year, without exception, policemen close the road to traffic at 8.00pm and stand at the salute while buglers from the Ypres Fire Brigade play "The Last Post".  This happens whatever the weather and there is always someone there to watch.  People living near the Menin Gate often open their doors and stand on their doorsteps to join in with this daily act of Remembrance.

Hotels  ●  Places to eat & drink  ●  Shopping  ●  Travel