Ramparts

Ypres


Ypres is unusual in that it has retained extensive sections of its city fortifications. Designed by French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, these sturdy brick-faced walls line the town’s southeastern moat and are topped by pleasant gardens. The tourist office's free Ramparts Route leaflet introduces a dozen of the historical fortifications, but most visitors simply stroll from the Menin Gate to the medieval Rijselpoort, just beyond which is the Ramparts Cemetery.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Ypres attractions

1. Merghelynck Museum

0.19 MILES

Unrelated to WWI, this museum faithfully reproduces a French manor house dating from 1774 and is filled with period antiques and artworks. The catch: it's…

2. Stedelijk Museum

0.23 MILES

This decent little gallery is set in a three-storey 1555 almshouse complex. Exhibitions change regularly but usually feature 19th-century paintings.

3. Museum Godshuis Belle

0.26 MILES

A single small chapel room featuring some unexpectedly high-quality medieval art, mostly religious.

4. Ramparts CWGC Cemetery

0.26 MILES

One of Ypres' most attractive military graveyards, this Commonwealth War Graves Commission site is found 1km south of the Grote Markt.

5. The Last Post

0.27 MILES

Every night at 8pm, traffic through the Menin Gate is halted while buglers sound the Last Post in remembrance of the WWI dead, a moving tradition started…

6. Menin Gate

0.27 MILES

A block east of Grote Markt, the famous Menin Gate is a huge stone gateway straddling the main road at the city moat. It's inscribed with the names of 54…

7. Rijselpoort

0.27 MILES

This medieval gate marks the entrance to the Ramparts Cemetery.

8. Gateway to Ypres

0.27 MILES

This excellent visitors centre should be your first port of call if you're a Commonwealth citizen looking for information about a family member who died…

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