Veurne
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Veurne

Veurne

Westhoek town near the French border, centred on one of Flanders' finest market squares.

Veurne is a small, handsome town in the Westhoek, the far western corner of Belgium, about 6km from the coast and close to the French border. The Grote Markt is one of the finest town squares in Flanders, lined with step-gabled buildings and the ornate Spanish Pavilion, with the Stadhuis and Belfry, the Sint-Walburgakerk, and the seventeenth-century Vleeshuis all on or around the square.

The town is best known for its annual Procession of Penitence, held on the last Sunday of July since 1644 — a solemn and striking event in which hooded penitents carry crosses through the streets.

The surrealist painter Paul Delvaux (1897–1994) lived in Veurne. The surrounding polders landscape is flat and quiet, with cycling paths running along the old canal dykes.

Guide

Day Trips

Veurne is well placed for trips around the Westhoek and the Belgian coast. De Panne and its long Channel beach are six kilometres west; Diksmuide, with the IJzertoren memorial to the First World War dead, lies twenty minutes east; and Ypres — Flanders Fields, the Menin Gate, and the in Flanders Fields museum — is a forty-minute drive south. The French border is five kilometres away, with Dunkirk reachable in half an hour.

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Getting There

Veurne has a small train station ten minutes' walk from the Grote Markt, with hourly trains to Brussels (about two hours via Ghent) and frequent connections to De Panne and Diksmuide. The Belgian coast tram (Kusttram) reaches De Panne and Koksijde from Veurne in twenty minutes. By car, the town sits just off the E40 motorway near the French border.

Guide

Things to Do

Veurne is a half-day town. Everything worth seeing — the Grote Markt, the two old churches, the town hall, the belfry — sits within five minutes of the central square, and the surrounding polders make for easy bike rides out to the coast.

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When to Go

Veurne is genuinely pleasant from late spring to early autumn. May through September gives long evenings on the Grote Markt, open churches, and quiet cycling in the surrounding polders. The Procession of Penitence on the last Sunday of July is the year's defining event; the Sint-Walburgakermis funfair runs alongside it.

Winter visits are very quiet — Veurne is far enough from the Bruges-Ypres tourist circuit to feel almost deserted from November to March, with several restaurants closed.