Ypres

The region east of Ypres was the battlefield in the Great War or World War I for four years, from 1914 to 1918. The front, the Ypres Salient, was mainly defended by British troops. Throughout that time, the Allies held their ground, but Ypres and the surrounding villages were largely flattened. Total toll: 300,000 dead on the Allied side, of which at least 250,000 were British. The many cemeteries testify to the bloody past of the region.

The center of Ypres was completely leveled during World War I. All buildings were carefully reconstructed afterward. The impressive Cloth Hall in the Grote Markt originally dates back to 1304. It now houses the moving In Flanders Fields Museum, which tells the great story of the war. And at the Menin Gate, where the names of 54,896 British soldiers are engraved, the Last Post is played every evening at 8 p.m. in tribute to their bravery.

Dromos