10 Facts About Ypres

Ypres is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders.

Ypres is an ancient town, known to have been raided by the Romans in the first century BC.

Textiles from Ypres could be found in the markets of Novgorod in Kievan Rus' in the early 12th century.

Ypres was further fortified in the 17th and 18th centuries while under the occupation of the Habsburgs and the French.

Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north.

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Ypres was one of the sites that hosted an unofficial Christmas Truce in 1914 between German and British soldiers.

The Ypres League sought to transform the horrors of trench warfare into a spiritual quest in which British and imperial troops were purified by their sacrifice.

Ypres became a pilgrimage destination for Britons to imagine and share the sufferings of their men and gain a spiritual benefit.

Ypres is a small city in the very western part of Belgium, the so-called Westhoek.

The countryside around Ypres is featured in the famous poem by John McCrae, In Flanders Fields.