IEPER/YPRES
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130.61 km² |
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34,897 |
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|
Luc Dehaene |
History
Early in the 12th
century, Ypres rose to become one
of the most important cities of the county of Flanders. The city
had already acquired a reputation for its cloth manufacturers and cloth
traders. Ypres could be reached by the little river 'Ieperlee' and ,moreover,
the city lay alongside the important trade route between Bruges and Lille (now
in Northern France). In that same century the cloth exchange was created as
well as the first cloth hall, the belfry and the cathedral.
The 13th
century and the beginning of the 14th century saw the city at the height of
its political and economic power.
Cloth from Ypres was exported everywhere in the then known. After Ghent and
Bruges, Ypres had become the third most important city in the county, with
about 40.000 inhabitants.
The 14th century was marked with a lot of political and social unrest and announced the end of Ypres'
prosperity. An epidemic killed a large part of the population in 1316. After
the battle at Kassel, many traders and business men left the city. Furthermore,
in 1383 the English army (supported by the rival town of Ghent) destroyed the
surroundings of Ypres.
During the religious troubles in
the 16th century the town was under
an 8 month siege by the Duke of
Parma. When the siege ended, Ypres was plundered and many inhabitants killed.
In the 17th century Ypres was taken
by the French. In order to better defend 
this strategic place, the architect Vauban, had large defense walls
built around the city. From 1559 to 1801 Ypres became an important religious
center. One of the most important bishops was Jansenius (1585-1638) who laid the basis for the religious
Jansenism movement with his book "Augustinus". After the 18th century Ypres had lost all its
strategic and economic importance.
The town came again into the
spotlights during the First World
War. Ypres was situated right in the middle of the frontline between
the Germans and the Allied troops. An almost complete destruction of the city
was the result. After the war Ypres was beautifully rebuilt.
World War I
Ypres On Fire
Ypres occupied
a strategic position during World War I
because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north (the Schlieffen Plan). The neutrality
of Belgium was guaranteed by Britain; Germany's invasion of Belgium brought the
British Empire into the war. The German
army surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the
war.
In the First Battle of
Ypres (31 October to 22 November 1914) the Allies captured the town
from the Germans. In the Second Battle of
Ypres (22 April to 25 May 1915) the Germans used poison gas for the first time on the Western
Front (they had used it earlier at the Battle of Bolimov on 3 January 1915) and
captured high ground east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against
Canadian, British, and French soldiers; including both metropolitan French
soldiers as well as Senegalese and Algerian tirailleurs (light infantry) from French
Africa. The gas used was chlorine gas. Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this city,
was also used for the first time near Ypres in the autumn of 1917.
Ruins of Ypres – 1919
Of the battles,
the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of
Ypres (21 July to 6 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele) in which the
British, Canadians, ANZAC and French forces recaptured the Passchendaele ridge east of the city at a
terrible cost of lives. After months of fighting, this battle resulted in nearly
half a million casualties to all sides, and only several miles of ground won by
Allied forces. The town was all but obliterated by the artillery fire.
Event
The Cat Parade ("Kattenstoet") takes
place every three years on the second Sunday of May. It involves the throwing
of toy cats from the belfry and a colourful parade of cats and witches. The
latest Cat Parade took place on May 10, 2009.
