Ypres Ramparts

The superb ramparts of Ypres (Ieper), the ancient stronghold city and trade centre now just inside Belgium, date from many eras, evolving from the early middle ages via huge Burgundian works to the vast complex of ramparts, bastions, moats, islands and advance fortifications constructed by Vauban, the great French military architect.

The ramparts are now beautiful places of mature trees and quiet water, wildlife, and the somehow suprisingly mellow constructions of prior military needs.

The best of the ramparts are to the south and east of the city, and a walk along them will take an hour plus an almost limitless amount of explorations and musing time.

Along the way you will see great towers and bastions from several periods, the medieval Lille Gate with a poignantly beautiful First World Ware graveyard nearby, and the unmissable, moving Menin Gate, memorial to almost 55,000 British Empire soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient during WWI but have no know grave. Excurse into Ypres' streets, ancient but rebuilt after wholesale destruction during WWI.

There is a useful but mildly annoying leaflet on the walk (almost no mention of Vauban, none of the WWI cemetery) that can be picked up around Ypres.

See our First World War Battlefields page for fascinating and highly poignant walks born of wartime in the environs.