Show belgian towns get new titles 4 wipers of world war days now leper flemish spelling used washington ypres cypres the belgian town in west flanders known to thousands of american and british soldiers during the world war as wipers is henceforth to be written leper its flemish spelling according to news dispatches from brussels leper is one of several towns in in flanders whose names have been reported changed by order of the royal belgian commission of names and dialectics says the national geographic society other towns and their new titles are louvain now to be called leuven bruges brugge and courtrair Cour trai kortrijk Kort rijk this change of names from french to flemish emphasizes that belgium is a bilingual country the flemish portion of belgium is the northern and western parts of the country and the french or walloon is the southern in brussels both flemish and french are spoken long lon important city dating from the ninth cantu century ry ypres cypres reached the zenith of its power in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when it was famed as a manufacturing center with a population of was introduced into ypres cypres toward the end of the eleventh century it soon became the chief industry of the town and the reason for its phenomenal growth and accompanying wealth another famous product of ypres cypres was valenciennes lace ypres cypres ranked with bruges and ghent as one of the most important industrial cities of the middle ages and vied with them for prestige rivalry between them became so intense that jealousies plus the e losses due to the great plague of 1383 finally led to their industry industrial al decline by the end of the S sixteenth x century there were not more than people in ypres cypres important monuments to the greatness of this once prominent city were the magnificent cloth hall and the beautiful cathedral of st martin surviving the ravages of time and strife these two great monuments of mans ingenuity were reduced to ashes and rubble during the world war when the region round around ypres cypres became a bitterly disputed buted battleground not only were the magnificent gothic structures leveled but nearly all of the once beautiful town was destroyed war brought new fame however this war which took away its old glory brought to ypres cypres new fame and world attention it has been called the martyr city and the holy ground of british arms because of the thousands of british soldiers who died here on the edge of the town a memorial has been erected to them the gate dedicated in 1927 this arch has engraved on its sides the names of the british soldiers whose graves are unknown each evening at dusk a bugler sounds the last post ypres cypres has been partially rebuilt men being engaged in the gigantic gan tic task in 1934 king leopold dedicated the new belfry erected amidst the ruins of the cloth hall the hall itself now built in miniature can perhaps never be restored to its former glory because of the many glorious relics and furnishings which were destroyed the cathedral of st martin was almost entirely rebuilt between 1922 1930 |