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44 Route 4. YPRES. Halles.
36 M. Ypres. — Hotels. Hor. pz 1a Cuarenrente (Pl. a; ©, 3), 12
R. at 2!/2-3'/2, B. 4, D. 3's fr. (incl. wine), good, Hér. pr L’Erke-RoyaLe
(Pl. b; C, 3), unpretending, both in the Grand* Place; Hér. DE France
(Pl. c; A, 4), Hor. pes Brasseurs (Pl. d; A, 4), both in the Boul. Malou,
opposite the station. — Café du Sultan, Aux Trois Suisses, both in the
Grand Place (Bavarian beer). — Post-Office (Pl. C, 4), Rue de Lille 68.
Ypres, Flem. Yper (65 ft.), an old town on the Yperlée (now
vaulted over), with 17,400 inhab., who are chiefly occupied in the
manufacture of Valenciennes lace, possesses broad and clean streets
and imposing old buildings of the 13-14th centuries. It was for-
merly the capital of West Flanders. The cloth-making industry
here dates back to 1073, and about 1247 Ypres is said to have
been the wealthiest and most powerful commercial town in Flanders,
with a population of 200,000 and upwards of 4000 looms in con-
stant activity. A succession of popular risings and the great plague
of 1347 led to the decay of the industry, while the siege of the
town and burning of the suburbs by the English and the burghers
of Ghent in 1383 caused the last of the weavers to migrate. The
devastations of the iconoclasts (1566) and the soldiers of Alva,
and the capture of the city by the Gueux (1578) and Alexander
Farnese (1584) reduced the population to 5000. During the
17th cent. Ypres was four times taken by the French (1648, 1649,
1658, 1678) and it belonged to France until 1715, The bishopric
founded in 1559 was suppressed in 1801. The fortifications were
removed in 1855.
From the railway-station (Pl. A, 4) we first follow the Rue de la
Station (Statie-Straat) to the N.E. and then turn to the left into the Rue
du Temple, near which, to the N. beyond the Church of St. Nicholas
(P1. B, 3), is an old brick tower, a relic of the Abbey of Thérowanne,
which was transferred to Ypres in 1559. — The Rue au Beurre
(Boter-Straat), with its picturesque gabled houses (Nos. 22 & 20, on
the left), leads to the N.E. to the Marché-Bas (Neermarkt; p. 46) and
the Gran’ Pracs or Groorzr Manxr (Pl. C, 3). Here, to the left,
stand the so-called —
“Halles (Pl. B, ©, 3), the most considerable edifice of its kind
in Belgium, begun by Count Baldwin IX. of Flanders (p. 215) in
1200 and completed in 1304. The three early-Gothic facades of the
Halle des Drapiers or Cloth Hall proper have three stories and are
flanked by corner-turrets. The statues in the niches of the top story
(Counts of Flanders on the S. and W., celebrated natives of Ypres on
the N.) were destroyed by the French in 1793 but replaced by new
ones in 1854-75. The edifice has been under restoration since 1908.
On the S. side, in the centre of the main facade (433 ft. in length),
rises the massive square Belfry (230 ft.), with turrets at the angles.
The E. side of the Halles is bounded by the so-called Nieuwerk,
a charming Renaissance structure erected in 1620-24, probably from
designs by Jan Sporeman (ca. 1575); its groundfloor consists of
an open hall (20 ft. wide), supported by columns. |
