War and industrial relics in West Flanders

Hikers in a new nature reserve in West Flanders were surprised to find the carcass of a Volkswagen van among the greenery. The van was reportedly once parked there as a hunting cabin.

The Belgian army erected an observation post on the remains of the presbytery of St Catherine's Chapel in Pervijze during World War I. 

Not much remains of Ramskapelle's former railway station today, as it was shot to pieces during the Battle of the Yser. The station was, therefore, right on the front line along the Yser.

Although today, Vloethemveld is a 350-hectare nature reserve a stone's throw from Bruges, it was once home to a Belgian army ammunition depot and the nature area also hides other military secrets.

During the final months of World War I, the British Army Troop Company Royal Engineers erected a concrete bridge over the Kemmelbeek near Ypres.

A skull and crossbones adorn the mossy grave of Antoine Michel Wemaer, a merchant buried here in 1837.

A century after the construction of the Waggelwater Bridge, a railway bridge over the Bruges-Ostend canal, a new railway bridge was commissioned in 2009, and trains no longer crossed the monumental Waggelwater Bridge.

The Belgian city of Bruges developed into an economic powerhouse from the 11th century onwards, thanks to its Medieval Flemish cloth industry and its international port.

In the early 20th century, between the railway line Ghent-Bruges and the Ghent-Ostend canal, 'La Brugeoise & Nivelles' rose from the ground, a famous railway equipment manufacturer.

The former Delhaize brush factory is one of Bruges' most striking and best-preserved industrial heritage sites.