Ypres on theFerraris map (around 1775)Excerpt from the chronicle of Ypres, with numerous legends and anecdotes. Written in the 18th century[2]
Ypres is an ancient town, known to have been raided by theRomans in the first century BC. It is first mentioned by name in 1066 and is probably named after the riverIeperlee on the banks of which it was founded.[3]
As the third largest city in theCounty of Flanders (afterGhent andBruges), Ypres played an important role in the history of the textile industry.[3] Textiles from Ypres could be found in the markets ofNovgorod in Kievan Rus' in the early 12th century. In 1241, a major fire ruined much of the old city. The powerful city was involved in important treaties and battles, including theBattle of the Golden Spurs, the Battle at Mons-en-Pévèle, thePeace of Melun, and theBattle of Cassel.
The famousCloth Hall was built in the 13th century. Also during this time cats, then the symbol of the devil and witchcraft, were thrown off Cloth Hall, possibly because of the belief that this would get rid of evil demons. Today, this act is commemorated with atriennialCat Parade through town.
Ypres had long been fortified to keep out invaders. Parts of the early ramparts, dating from 1385, still survive near theRijselpoort (Lille Gate). Over time, the earthworks were replaced by sturdier masonry and earth structures and a partialmoat. Ypres was further fortified in the 17th and 18th centuries while under the occupation of the Habsburgs and the French. Major works were completed at the end of the 17th century by the French military engineerSébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.[9]
Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north (theSchlieffen Plan). Theneutrality of Belgium, established by theFirst Treaty of London, was guaranteed by Britain; Germany's invasion of Belgium brought theBritish Empire into the war. The German army surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war. To counterattack, British, French, and allied forces made costly advances from theYpres Salient into the German lines on the surrounding hills.
In theFirst Battle of Ypres (19 October to 22 November 1914), the Allies captured the town from the Germans. The Germans had usedtear gas at theBattle of Bolimov on 3 January 1915. Their use ofpoison gas for the first time on 22 April 1915 marked the beginning of theSecond Battle of Ypres, which continued until 25 May 1915. They captured high ground east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against Canadian, British, and French soldiers, including both metropolitan French soldiers as well asSenegalese andAlgeriantirailleurs (light infantry) from French Africa. The gas used waschlorine.Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this town, was also used for the first time near Ypres, in the autumn of 1917.
Ruins of Ypres, 1919
Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July to 10 November 1917, also known as theBattle of Passchendaele), in which the British, Canadian,ANZAC, and French forces recaptured thePasschendaele Ridge east of the city at a terrible cost of lives. After months of fighting, this battle resulted in nearly half a million casualties to all sides, and only a few miles of ground won by Allied forces. During the course of the war the town was all but obliterated by the artillery fire.
English-speaking soldiers often referred to Ieper/Ypres by the deliberate mispronunciation "Wipers". British soldiers even published a wartime newspaper calledThe Wipers Times.[10] The same style of deliberate mispronunciation was applied to other Flemish place names in the Ypres area for the benefit of British troops, such asWytschaete becoming "White Sheet" andPloegsteert becoming "Plug Street".
Ypres was one of the sites that hosted an unofficialChristmas Truce in 1914 between German and British soldiers.
During World War Two, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) would fight the Germans in a delaying action at theYpres-Comines Canal, one of the actions that allowed the Allied retreat to Dunkirk.Adolf Hitler (laterChancellor of Germany) fought at Ypres in the First World War and later visited the town during theBattle of France.
On 12 February 1920,King George V awarded theMilitary Cross to the City of Ypres, one of only two awards of this decoration to a municipality during World War I, the other being toVerdun.[11] In May 1920Field Marshal French presented the Cross in a special ceremony in the city,[12] and in 1925 it was added to the city's coat of arms, along with the FrenchCroix de Guerre.[13]
HistorianMark Connelly states that in the 1920s, British veterans set up the Ypres League and made the city the symbol of all that they believed Britain was fighting for and gave it a holy aura in their minds. The Ypres League sought to transform the horrors of trench warfare into a spiritual quest in which British and imperial troops were purified by their sacrifice. In 1920,Lieutenant-Colonel Beckles Willson's guide book,The Holy Ground of British Arms captured the mood of the Ypres League:
There is not a single half-acre in Ypres that is not sacred. There is not a single stone which has not sheltered scores of loyal young hearts, whose one impulse and desire was to fight and, if need be, to die for England. Their blood has drenched its cloisters and its cellars, but if never a drop had been spilt, if never a life had been lost in defence of Ypres still would Ypres have been hallowed, if only for the hopes and the courage it has inspired and the scenes of valour and sacrifice it has witnessed.[14]
Ypres became a pilgrimage destination for Britons to imagine and share the sufferings of their men and gain a spiritual benefit.[15]
After the war,Winston Churchill proposed to leave Ypres as a mausoleum, with the rightful owners to be deprived from regaining their land. By early March 1919, the Belgian scheme was to leave the Cathedral and Cloth Hall and the buildings around them in ruins.[16] By November 1919, the Belgian government was seriously considering two schemes, both of which would have kept the Cloth Hall and the Cathedral in ruins, but one scheme would allow rebuilding houses around the Grand Place, whereas the other would have created a belt of trees surrounding the Hall and Cathedral.[17] By early September 1920, the decision had been made by the British Government that theMenin Gate and its immediate surroundings would be used as a memorial,[18] by which time, the Belgians had already begun to rebuild the area.[19]
In the 100th anniversary period more attempts were being made to preserve the First World War heritage in and around Ypres.[20]
On September 6, 1944, the 1st Polish Armoured Division liberated the town of Ypres after four years of occupation, and the nightly 'Last Post' ceremony was resumed at theMenin Gate; the Germans had forbidden the ceremony when they occupied Ypres in 1940; from January 1941 until the liberation, the daily commemoration took place inBrookwood Military Cemetery.[21]
The fountain in the Grote Markt, Ypres, opposite the Cloth Hall
After the war the town was extensively rebuilt using money paid by Germany inreparations, with the main square, including the Cloth Hall and town hall, being rebuilt as close to the original designs as possible (the rest of the rebuilt town is more modern in appearance). The Cloth Hall today is home toIn Flanders Fields Museum, dedicated to Ypres's role in the First World War and named for thepoem byJohn McCrae.
Ypres is a small city in the very western part of Belgium, the so-calledWesthoek. Ypres these days has the title of "city of peace" and maintains a close friendship with another town on which war had a profound impact:Hiroshima. Both towns witnessed warfare at its worst: Ypres was one of the first places wherechemical warfare wasemployed, while Hiroshima suffered the debut ofnuclear warfare. The city governments of Ypres and Hiroshima advocate that cities should never be targets again and campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Ypres hosts the international campaign secretariat ofMayors for Peace, an international Mayoral organization mobilizing cities and citizens worldwide to abolish and eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020.[22]
Cloth Hall and Grote Markt (Great Market) at night
The imposingCloth Hall was built in the 13th century and was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages. The structure which stands today is the exact copy of the original medieval building, rebuilt after the war. Thebelfry that surmounts the hall houses a 49-bellcarillon. The whole complex was designated aWorld Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.
TheMenin Gate Memorial to the Missing[23] commemorates those soldiers of the British Commonwealth – with the exception of Newfoundland and New Zealand – who fell in theYpres Salient during the First World War before 16 August 1917 and who have no known grave. United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial atTyne Cot, a site which marks the farthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are commemorated on memorials atButtes New British Cemetery andMessines Ridge British Cemetery.[24] The Menin Gate records only soldiers for whom there is no known grave. As graves are identified, the names of those buried in them are removed from the Gate.[citation needed]
The memorial's location is especially poignant, as it lies on the eastward route from the town, whichEntente soldiers would have taken heading towards the fighting – many never to return. Every evening since 1929, at precisely eight o'clock, traffic around the imposing arches of the Menin Gate Memorial has been stopped while the "Last Post" is sounded beneath the gate by the buglers of the Last Post Association in honour of the memory ofBritish Empire soldiers who fought and died there. During the Second World War the ceremony was prohibited by the occupying German forces, but was resumed on the very evening of liberation – 6 September 1944 – notwithstanding the heavy fighting still underway in other parts of the town. The Last Post ceremony was, instead, hosted daily at Brookwood Military Cemetery in England for the duration of that period.
The stone lions bearing the Ypres coat-of-arms, which once flanked theoriginal gate, were presented to Australia in 1936 by the people of Belgium, as acknowledgement of Australia's sacrifice during the war. They now reside in theAustralian War Memorial inCanberra. In 2017, for the 100th anniversary memorial services of theThird Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele, in a joint effort by the Belgian, Flemish and Australian governments, the lions were temporarily returned to the Menin Gate. Exact replicas are now installed, in their original position, guarding the approach to Menin Gate on its eastern side.[26]
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Saint George's Memorial Church commemorates the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the five battles fought for Ypres during First World War.
TheCat Parade ("Kattenstoet") takes place every three years on the second Sunday of May. It involves the throwing of stuffed toy cats from the belfry and a colourful parade of cats and witches. The latest Cat Parade took place on 12 May 2024.[citation needed]
Though Ypres is an historic city, and generates significant income from tourism, it also has a number of industrial areas. The biggest one is along theIeperlee canal, which hosts room for around 120 companies and a wind farm in the north of Ypres.[27]
The office area known asIeper Business Park is connected to the industrial area. That office area started as the site of speech recognition companyLernout & Hauspie, and was named "Flanders Language Valley" (mimickingSilicon Valley), until the company went bankrupt. Since then, the office area has had many difficult years, during which a large share of the offices were unused. However, those years are mostly over, and currently, the area offers around 1000 employees a job.
There are also various smaller industrial areas like the area aroundPicanol in the south of Ypres.
Jan Thomas van Ieperen (1617–1673), Baroque painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He was first active in Antwerp, where he worked in the workshop of Rubens, and later became court painter at the Habsburg court in Vienna.
Clementine Lynch (1754– 1799), Abbess of the Ypres Benedictine convent during the French Revolution.
^"Archived copy"(PDF).isites.harvard.edu. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 3 September 2015. Retrieved17 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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