Ypres

Ypres , Du. Ieper, commune (1991 pop. 35,235), West Flanders prov., SW Belgium, near the French border. It is an agricultural market and an industrial center. Manufactures include textiles, textile-making machinery, and processed food. During the Middle Ages, Ypres was one of the most powerful towns of Flanders, with a flourishing cloth industry that rivaled those of Ghent and Bruges . However, political and social unrest and foreign wars led to the decline of this industry. A center of resistance to Spanish rule, the town was taken (1584) and sacked by Alessandro Farnese . It was held by France from 1678 to 1716 and from 1792 to 1814. In World War I, Ypres was the scene of three great battles. The town was completely destroyed during the war and was later rebuilt. Among the city's restored buildings are the Gothic Cathedral of St. Martin and the magnificent cloth-workers hall (both originally built in the 13th cent.). On the ramparts of the fortifications built (late 17th cent.) by Vauban is a British memorial gate designed by Reginald Blomfield. Outside the town's walls are some 40 military cemeteries.

Ypres ˈēpr(ə) a town in northwest Belgium near the border with France, in the province of West Flanders. Ypres was the scene of some of the bitterest fighting of World War I.

Ypres a town in SW Belgium, near the border with France, in the province of West Flanders, the scene of some of the bitterest fighting of the First World War, and now site of the Menin Gate.
Battle of Ypres the name given to each of three battles on the Western Front near Ypres during the First World War in 1914, 1915, and 1917. In the first battle (October–November 1914) Allied forces prevented the Germans breaking through to the Channel ports; the second battle (April–May 1915) was an inconclusive trench conflict in which poison gas was used for the first time, while the third battle (1917) was the slaughter of Passchendaele.