The Market Place (Grote Markt), Ieper

View of the market square looking east from the belfry of the Cloth Hall in 1990.

The market place became the natural centre of trade for the town as the central place where the main routes entering the town from the north, south, east and west converged. In medieval times, during its most prosperous commercial period of history, the market square of Ieper was one of the largest in Belgium.

The photograph was taken in 1990 and the square has undergone a major redevelopment since, although the central area is used for car parking on most days.

Saturdays was, and still is, “market day”. Before the First World War the inhabitants of the city and its surroundings were involved with market trading in meat, fish, vegetables and butter. On market day the large square was filled with woven baskets, tilt carts, covered wagons, stalls, produce and people.

The square was not only used for markets and trading but was also a place where people would gather together for festival days and military parades. There was a band-stand in the square. As a garrison town with an infantry and cavalry regiment there were parades of soldiers and cavalrymen. Hundreds of beautifully groomed horses would pass through the square carrying their men in their brightly coloured uniforms and swords. Before the war Ieper was the home of an internationally famous riding school for the training of cavalry officers.

Flanders Architecture

The architecture of many of the buildings surrounding the cobbled market place is typical of the tall, step-gabled houses of Flanders.

The former Hotel Kassilrij with its three rows of dormer windows, viewed through the fountain on the market square.

One of the buildings on the northern side of the market square is the former “Hotel de Chatellenie” or “Kasslrij”. When this building was rebuilt after 1918 it was finished before the Cloth Hall and the Town Hall. Provisionally it served as the Town Hall until the rebuilding of the Cloth Hall was complete. In the rebuilding of the “Kassilrij” it's roof acquired three sets of dormer windows which had not been there before the Great War. On the facade of the building there are 7 sculptured medallions depicting the “7 deadly sins”.

Eating and Accommodation in Ieper

Pavement cafés including “Den Klein Stadhuis”, “De Anker” and “De Trompet” on the market square in Ieper.

There are numerous hotels, bed and breakfast lodgings, restaurants and cafés in Ieper, some of which are located on the market square.

Those that are located elsewhere within the city are generally only a few minutes' walk from the centre.

Hotels in and around Ieper Bed & Breakfast Accommodation in and around Ieper

Shopping in Ieper

The market square is surrounded by a range of buildings including shops selling books, postcards and souvenirs of the city and its historical heritage. Several shops sell the famed Belgian chocolates. The In Flanders Fields museum shop, located at the exit of the museum and accessible from the Tourist Office, sells an excellent range of books, maps, cards and items related to the memory of the Great War of 1914-1918.

Most of the streets leading off the market square also include shops of various kinds. There is a small supermarket located on the Vandenpeerboomplein square to the north of the Cloth Hall and opposite St. Martin's cathedral.

For information about Ieper (Ypres) see the Tourist Office:

Ieper Tourist Office