Photo — Dominic Rivetti
Ypres, Belgium, is a city with a past. That it is a city at all is an incredible story in itself. Almost entirely devastated, blown and flattened to rubble during the Great War of 1914 to 1918, its proud and undeterred people returned and rebuilt, brick-by-brick, in its entirety.
During the middle ages, the city of Ypres was a prestigious trading center, one of the premier Flemish cloth centers next to Bruges and Ghent.
Its impressive and imposing Cloth Hall and St. Martin's Cathedral as well as its ramparts were rebuilt after World War I with complete respect for the past.
Between October 1914 and October 1918, the battlefield of World War I was positioned a mile or two from the center of this lovely little city.
Trenches were built in a curve from north to south around the city. Five of the bloodiest battles in history were fought in the notorious Ypres Salient.
There are more than 150 military cemeteries and monuments in and around the city, as a consequence and a permanent reminder of the futility of war.
I visited Ypres for an overnight, en-route from Bruges to Calais. In Flanders Fields Museum was a must-see. The exhausting struggle in the trenches, first gas attacks, political alliances and consequences for daily lives of soldiers and civilians have been immortalized in a world-class museum that incorporates connection with surrounding landscape with the horrifying impact the war years left on both people and place.
Individual witnesses, performed and filmed for haunting life-size cinematic installations bring the past to chilling life for today's visitors to the area.
Last Post at the Menin Gate has played each and every day at 8pm under its impressive arches, since 1928.
On July 9th, 2015, one year into 100 Anniversary commemorations for those perished in World War I, between 1914 and 1918, the 30,000th "Last Post" was sounded.
World War I was the first true global conflict. Victims from more than 50 countries are buried in Flanders, Belgium. The Menin Gate was built in honor of over 54,000 missing commonwealth soldiers who never received a burial.
It was absolutely stunning to stand beneath this hallowed gate and contemplate the magnitude of lost souls, prior to the haunting bugles of the Last Post Association sounding.
Names are engraved in Portland Stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the central Hall of Memory, to the sides of the staircases leading from the lower level to the upper exterior level, and on the walls inside the loggias on the north and south sides of the building.
Hundreds gather each and every evening, all seasons, whatever the weather.
He's come back, all mirth and glory, Like the prince in a fairy story. Winter called him far away; Blossoms bring him home with May.
"At Daybreak" by Siegfried Sassoon
The various memorial sites in Flanders are quite close to one another and easily accessible by car, train, foot or bicycle. In planning a visit to the region, there are also lots of organized day tours to take once situated.
Check out the website www.flandersfields for an idea of the range of options available to visitors.
If you have a personal interest in finding the fallen in your family heritage, click here to take a look at the website of the Flanders Fields Museum for more info on the Belgian civilians and soldiers who died there.
For those who aren't able to visit Flanders but would like to commemorate a victim of WWI during the Centennial, click here to plant a poppy from now through 2018 to create a worldwide online poppy field, on Facebook.
If you do go, I recommend modern, efficient, family-owned Hotel Restaurant Ariane, in Ypres. I booked last minute and was lucky to find rooms, given that it was a Belgian holiday weekend on the night of my stay.
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