In Flanders Fields Museum

World-class WWI museum inside the rebuilt Lakenhalle, told through individual stories

One of the finest First World War museums in the world, In Flanders Fields occupies the upper floors of the rebuilt Ypres Cloth Hall — itself a powerful statement, since the original Lakenhalle was entirely destroyed in the war and reconstructed over twenty years from the ruins. The museum covers the entire Ypres Salient and the experience of the war, from the political origins through the grinding attrition of the trenches to the aftermath and memory.

What sets it apart from most war museums is the deliberate focus on individual human stories. At the entrance you register a bracelet encoded with the details of a real person who was present at the Salient — a soldier, a nurse, a civilian — and their fate is revealed gradually as you move through the exhibition. The technology is clever, but the effect is emotional rather than gimmicky. The exhibition design is outstanding, using original objects, photographs, and sound to build a picture of what the war actually felt like from inside.

Allow at least two hours. The museum is open daily except some Mondays in winter; check the Ypres tourism website for current hours.

things to do museum
A story
The museum takes its name from the famous poem by Canadian doctor John McCrae, written on 3 May 1915 after the burial of his friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. McCrae composed it in twenty minutes while sitting in the back of an ambulance, looking out at the graves and the poppies growing among them. He initially dismissed the poem and threw it away; a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to the Spectator, which declined it. Punch published it in December 1915 and it became one of the most widely read poems of the war.

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