Museums/Others, Ieper

1 more image

The Merghelynk museum

This building from 1774 houses one of the most interesting musea of Ypres.

Not only the architecture has a definite interest also furnitures Louis XV and Louis XVI, and a (small) part of the Empire style worth a visit.

A collection of Chinese porcelain and even Japanese, master paintings, statues sèvres ... enhance the collections.

Only one drawback: only group visits: in season the tourist office organizes visits 2 times per month for group visits can be made ​​specially organized.

-oooOOOooo-

Ce bâtiment datant de 1774 renferme un des musée les plus intéressant de Ypres.

Non seulement l'architecture a un intérêt certain mais le mobilier d'époque Louis XV et Louis XVI ainsi qu'une (minime) partie de style Empire valent une visite.

Une collection de porcelaine chinoise et même japonaise, des tableaux de maîtres, des statues de sèvres... rehaussent les collections.

Seul inconvénient: la visite se fait en groupe: en saison l'office du tourisme organise des visites 2 fois par mois et pour les groupes constitués des visites peuvent être spécialement organisées

-oooOOOooo-

4 more images

This is a small but well organized museum housing artifacts relating to the Battles of Ieper and surrounding areas....the collection is thought to be one of the best in the World and is VERY well organized and presented in a really professional manner..

The Hooge Crater museum was opened by Roger and Rosita de Smul in 1994 in a renovated chapel and also a small school on the Ypres-Menin Road...and is named after a crater that was blown into the earth by a charges of 3500 lbs set under a fortified German position in July 1915.

The collection is an assimilation of collections of two different people, the curator, Roger De Smul, and Philippe Oosterlinck, a WW1 collector from Menin.

You will see here if you should go ....a collection of uniforms of Australian, American,Canadian, British, Belgian, French and German troops worn by mannequins set in "lifelike" situations...on horse or in trenches..There is also a large presentation of weapons and equipment and items of all the armies who were involved in the battles in the Ieper area.

I found this in particular to be more than a little touching ..the attached photo is of a letter and photos that are part of the collection at the museum.. from families of soldiers that had a connection from the War years in and around Ieper...the first letter reads...

" Dear Sir,

After the conversation I had with you on Sunday 12th November 2006 at your Museum concerning my Great Grandfather.

I enclose some items in connection with Sgt. Wesley Parker,my Great Grandfather who is buried in the Hooge Crater War Cemetery,and hope you will be kind enough to exhibit these items in your museum.

No 52365 Sgt. Wesley Parker
8 Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Killed in Action 14.03.1918.
Hooge Crater- Row J-Plot 14-Grave 10

I would be grateful if you would let me know when this is done..

Yours Sincerely.....

Alastair A. Capp "

The museum is open from 1000 am until 1800 pm Tuesday until Sunday.....closed Mondays..from the 1st of February until the 15th of December...

The entrance fees are when I was there 4.5 Euros for adults....2.00 Euros for children...and special rates for groups...

PLEASE check out this museum if you are in the area and would like to see a presentation that really deserves a look!! You'll be happy that you did!

4 more images

This is an area where a group of trenches and underground rooms was found. They have been restored and are open to the public. You can walk between the trench walls that were made of sandbags. You can see the very small rooms people lived in - one of my photos shows the outline of one of these rooms at ground surface - this gives you a good idea of just how small these underground rooms were. The water table is very high so water was constantly seeping into the trenches. There is a reconstructed trench walkway displayed so can see how people walked inside the trenches where there was lots of water and mud. A tremendous number of people died by drowning in mud - there was almost no way out once you fell into it. For this reason, wooden plank walkways were built but they were slippery and hard to follow at night, and even with these, people continued to perish in the mud. The interpretive signs all have a poppy cutout in memory of the "In Flanders Fields" poppies. Also note the barbed wire wrapped around the poppy stem.

In a sidestreet of the Rijselstraat, acros the red house in the picture and a little further from the "Tempeliershuis" there is a beautiful reconstructed house of the former Arthur Merghelynck. He strated a private museum in 1894. In the house you can visit stylish furnitured rooms from the 18th century. In the former carriage house there is an additional museum in which a huge collection of archelogical objects can be seen (over 800). Especially the items relating to the rich "laken" (cloth) trade are for Ieper visitors a must.
Open for groups only throughout the year. Contact before arrival.