Ieper (ypres), Big To Small And Small To Big: Ieper Since World War 1

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The town of Ypres (Ieper) looks like a small quiet town today with the gigantic cloth

hall overlooks the market square of this beautifully rebuilt medieval town. The Ieper was a major cloth producing center in Europe in 1900s beginning. It was a beautiful town with a peaceful way of life. But hell broke loose over the town when the World war 1 started. Soldiers arrived in the town with the British Army in the autumn of 1914. From 1914-1918 the city became the center of fighting between the Imperial German Armies of Emperor Wilhem II and the Allied Armies of Belgium, France and Great Britain. The First Battle of ieper began in mid October 1914. It was the first of four battles fighting over possession of this ancient city called ieper. By the time the war came to an end in 1918, the town was totally destroyed. Every building or any construction was laid down to ground by the german bombardment. The ieper city was ruined and shattered to pieces. Once a major city of trade was now nothing more than ruins. It was suggested to abandon the city and establish a new city nearby. But the local did not give up and started reconstruction of Ieper or ypres. The reconstruction work which took almost two decades made the city stand tall once again in the pages of history. And today ieper stands tall again once as a world war 1 era medieval town which stood against all odds.

Today Ieper is a small beautiful town with a population of some 35,000, and is a major tourist attraction for people who want to witness the marks that world war 1 had left on many parts of the World. One can visit many locations and museums in ieper which house the old memories of the world war . Some of the place which are a must visit are :

Menin Gate- The Menin Gate is dedicated to the commemoration of British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown.

Flanders FieldMuseum: The most famous and a must see monument in Ieper relating to the First World War. It is located in Grote Market or the Main Square. It is said to be one of the worlds biggest war museums, located in the rebuilt colossal building Lakenhalle (cloth hall), topped by a 70m high belfry.
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Cemeteries in Ieper: Over 75 Commonwealth military cemeteries for the First World War soldiers spread across Ieper. At the Ramparts Cemetery, founded in 1915, rests 153 Britons, 11 Australians and 9 Canadians. Just recently in 2002, a memorial to the Indian Army was erected to remember the brave soldiers from India at the Ramparts.

Cat Festival-Cat Festival in Ieper or the kattenstoet takes place every three years on the second Sunday of May. In the festival there is a event which involves the throwing of toy cats from belfry, followed by colourful parade of men dressed as cats and witches.

A visit to this small town of ieper will speak of every story of how this town went to down and then came up again, From big to small and then big again, as it stands told.

by: bharat

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