The unusual 1950 IJzertoren is built of drab purple-brown brick and topped with power-station-style windows. This colossal 84m-high ‘peace’ tower is at once crushingly ugly and fascinating. It’s set behind the shattered ruins of the 1930 original, the mysterious 1946 sabotage of which remains controversial. The tower is probably Flanders’ foremost nationalist symbol: its 22 floors house a very expansive museum related to WWI and Flemish emancipation.
IJzertoren
Top choice in West Flanders
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
29.07 MILES
Inaugurated in 1892, Lille's illustrious Fine Arts Museum claims France's second-largest collection after Paris' Musée du Louvre. Its cache of sublime…
20.43 MILES
The heart of ancient Bruges, the old market square is lined with pavement cafes beneath step-gabled facades. The buildings aren't always quite as medieval…
12.4 MILES
No museum gives a more balanced yet moving and user-friendly introduction to WWI history. It’s a multisensory experience combining soundscapes, videos,…
20.37 MILES
Bruges’ most celebrated art gallery boasts an astonishingly rich collection that's strong in superb Flemish Primitive and Renaissance works, depicting the…
20.21 MILES
In the restored chapel of a 12th-century hospital building with superb timber beamwork, this museum shows various torturous-looking medical implements,…
20.42 MILES
Towering 83m above the square like a gigantic medieval rocket is this fabulous 13th-century belfry. There’s relatively little to see inside, but it’s…
13.23 MILES
This is an unusually light-hearted WWI attraction. Reverend Philip ‘Tubby’ Clayton set up the Everyman’s Club here in 1915 to offer rest and recreation…
11.46 MILES
Probably the most-visited Salient site, this is the world’s biggest British Commonwealth war cemetery, with 11,956 graves. A huge semicircular wall…
Nearby West Flanders attractions
0.67 MILES
Diksmuide's imposing Saint Nicholas Church anchors the Markt and is a great backdrop for your Flanders Fields photo album. The church was almost…
2. Langemark Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof
8.08 MILES
The Salient's largest German WWI cemetery is smaller than Tyne Cot but arguably more memorable, amid oak trees and trios of squat, mossy crosses. Some 44…
8.31 MILES
A classical 17th-century farmstead houses this delightful museum that comprehensively examines baking from grain production to speculaas (a type of…
8.58 MILES
Around 8km south of Veurne, the late-16th-century Kasteel Beauvoorde is an intact, picture-perfect (though tiny by castle standards), four-storey moated…
8.71 MILES
Behind the Grote Markt’s southeast corner, St-Niklaaskerk has a bulky 13th-century tower that you can climb for good summer views, plus a small exhibit on…
8.75 MILES
The 15th-century Spaans Paviljoen (Spanish Pavilion) was Veurne’s town hall before being commandeered as a garrison for Spanish officers during Habsburg…
8.8 MILES
The 1628 octagonal belfort (belfry), a Unesco World Heritage site, rises behind the 17th-century former courthouse building. It now houses a helpful…
8.8 MILES
Veurne’s main church is the delicately spired St-Walburgakerk, a spacious, heavily buttressed affair containing much-revered relics. The skull of St…