Ypres is located in the south-west of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders, 12 kilometers from the border with France. This is a city with a difficult fate. In the early Middle Ages, it was one of the richest towns in Europe. Then, numerous wars reduced it to the level of a small provincial town. And during the First World War, chemical weapons were first used near Ypres — first chlorine, and then mustard gas, also called Yperite. The city itself was almost destroyed. However, the hardworking Belgians neatly reconstructed the most significant buildings. One of them is the grand Cloth Hall — the pride of Ypres, the largest non-religious Gothic building in the world. The length of its facade is 125 meters. Another remarkable building is St. Martin's Cathedral with a 100-meter bell tower. You can also note Saint Peter's Church, the original of which dates from the 12th century. The restoration of Ypres is the first time in history when a city destroyed by war was recreated from scratch. The memory of that war — the Menin Gate is a kind of memorial, on the walls of which are carved the names of 54 thousand British soldiers who died near Ypres.