Ypres

For #treesquare today we’re back in France – in Ypres to be exact.

It’s fair to say that Ypres (or Ieper) has been pretty unlucky over the years when it’s come to wars.

Even before it was literally flattened in World War 1, it was the scene of a number of battles and sieges – dating all the way back to the first century when the Romans took a liking to it. In the 13th century, a huge fire took most of the city out, in the 14th century it was besieged in the Norwich Crusades, and in 1678 it was captured (briefly) for France by Louis IV.

Ypres became part of the Hapsburg empire early in the 18th century, before being captured again by the French 80 years later. Then, of course, came the three battles of Ypres (deliberately mispronounced Wipers by English soldiers) in WW1 – which obliterated the town.

We’re here to attend the Last Post service at Menin Gate.

The Menin Gate in Ypres is a memorial to the missing.  The names of over 54,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the battles around Ypres up to August 15, 1917, and whose graves are unknown are listed here.

To honour the fallen, every evening at 8 pm sharp the Last Post is played under the Menin Gate Memorial. The ceremony has taken place every day since 1928. The night that we attended (in April 2018) was the 31,012th ceremony.

For more on Ypres and Menin Gate – and Tyne Cot (which I’ll tell you a little about in tomorrow’s #treesquare, check out this post.

I’m linking up with Becky this month for her tree squares challenge where we post photos of trees, any trees, in square format. You’ll find Becky’s most recent post here. Oh, and given that I’m pretty much posting daily and you’ll probably get bored with pictures of trees in square formats, feel free to skim on by – I won’t be offended.