The IJzer Tower

The IJzer Tower has a controversial history. It was opened in 1930 as a symbol of the four years of fighting along the River IJzer, under the motto 'No More War'. However, the tower also bore the letters 'AVV- VVK' ('Alles Voor Vlaanderen – Vlaanderen Voor Kristus', meaning 'All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ'). For this reason, it became associated with the resistance of the Flemish nationalists to what they saw as the dominance of the French-speakers in Belgium. Stories about ordinary soldiers - largely Flemish - being sent needlessly to their death by officers - largely French-speaking - whose orders they could not understand helped to fuel the Flemish demands for greater political power and freedom of expression. Today, historians tend to nuance these stories, but until relatively recently they still excited great passion on both sides of the linguistic divide.

In 1946 the IJzer Tower was blown up with dynamite, probably as a 'reprisal' against perceived Flemish collaboration with the Germans during the Second World War. The tower was rebuilt and re-inaugurated in 1965.

Today, the content of the tower has been adjusted to reflect the needs and attitudes of the modern visitor, with a special emphasis on the new tower's message of peace. The full story is now told in a new museum display that has only recently been reopened.

If you look across from the tower to the other side of the River IJzer, you will see Restaurant Sint-Jan. This is the spot where the legendary flour mills once stood: the much-feared Minoterie, which features in many of the wartime stories associated with this sector of the front. The photographs show how the Minoterie looked during the war, and we have collected together some of its more well-known stories.

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