MAIN SQUARE, HALLS AND BELFRY
The immense Grand-Place with its houses lining it, offering well reconstructed baroque, classical and neoclassical facades.
The immense Grand-Place has also been rebuilt, like the rest of the city. The houses lining the square have well-reconstructed Baroque, Classical and Neoclassical facades. How to describe the Ypres Cloth Halls in one word... Colossal? Impressive? Monstrous, to use Sylviane Demoulin's expression? In fact, words can't really convey the impression you get when you see the building for the first time. The halls, built in the early 14th century, bear witness to Ypres' past grandeur: they measure 125 m in length. Gothic in style, they were used as a cloth warehouse on the1st floor and a store on the first floor. They now house the In Flanders Fields museum. Designed as a covered market - and warehouse - the building had no fewer than 48 doors and several important auction rooms. Like the rest of the city, the building was destroyed during the bombings of the First World War, and only a few parts survived the collapse. The rooms were subsequently refurbished, and the upper floors now host themed exhibitions.
The equally imposingbelfry, built in the same neo-Flemish style and once used as a weapons room and treasury, is now home to a 49-bell carillon. Square and massive, it measures 70 m in height: it, too, is the result of a reconstruction. It's from its top that (fake) cats are thrown during the Cat Festival.
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Au milieu de la place et à coté de la cathédrale se trouve le Beffroi. On accède au sommet par de nombreuses marches… et nous découvrons un panorama de la ville et les alentours de la campagne Belge et Française. A l’intérieur un important musée relatant les conflits et plus particulièrement la dernière guerre. Très intéressant pour les amateurs d’histoire.
this city that was destroyed during the first world war was rebuilt completely with the identical, and this paved place offers finely jagged magnificent façades. English knows it, because they come here to make their purchases or eat after visiting the Memorial of the town of Ypres.