Cemeteries & Memorials

A monumental memorial was erected in 1938 on the bank of the Yser in Nieuwpoort in honour of Belgian King Albert I.

You bump into this brick obelisk at the edge of a forest in northern France. The monument was erected more than two centuries ago.

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

Two and a half centuries ago, on 13 February 1787, the first burial took place in Bruges' Central Cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

To defend the nation against foreign attacks, a series of forts were built around Antwerp, Liège and Namur from the end of the nineteenth century. For example, the Defense Line of Antwerp consisted of sixteen larger strongholds in a wide circle around the city, including Fort Breendonk.

In early May 1915, Canadian doctor and poet John McCrae wrote the world-famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' from a medical aid station a stone's throw from Ypres.

The British army ruled Ploegsteert woods throughout World War I, except from April to September 1918, when the German army held Ploegsteert for six months.

The Irish Peace Park in Belgium is next to the Battle of Messines, which started on June 7, 1917.

An eagle atop a 15-meter-high pillar was inaugurated in 1930 and originally commemorated German marines killed aboard a submarine during World War I.

The Laboe Naval Memorial's foundation stone was laid in 1927 at the mouth of the Kieler Fjord in the Baltic Sea. The 72-metre-high tower was finished in 1936.