Ypres (locally Ieper) is a small, handsome town in Western Flanders that was completely destroyed during the First World War and painstakingly rebuilt in its original medieval style during the 1920s. The result is a town that looks ancient but is essentially a century old — a living monument to what was lost.
In the Middle Ages, Ypres was one of the great cloth-trading cities of Flanders. The enormous Lakenhalle (Cloth Hall) on the Grote Markt, now faithfully reconstructed, houses the In Flanders Fields Museum, one of the best World War I museums anywhere. The war cemeteries, memorials, and battlefield sites in the surrounding countryside draw visitors from around the world.
Every evening at 8pm, traffic stops at the Menin Gate and buglers play the Last Post in honour of the fallen. The gate bears the names of nearly 55,000 Commonwealth soldiers whose bodies were never found. It has been a daily ceremony since 1928, interrupted only during the German occupation.
The town itself is pleasant beyond its history — good restaurants around the Grote Markt, the 18th-century Vauban fortifications along the ramparts, and a friendly, unhurried atmosphere. Ypres is well connected by train from Brussels and Kortrijk.