Once the steel storm of the industrial war had passed, the idyllic Flanders Fields region in Belgium was left as a desolate moon landscape. The First World War had wiped dozens of villages and cities completely off the map. The fields had been destroyed by grenades, mine craters, scrap, trenches, bunkers, railways and infrastructure of the war machine. But Flanders Fields rose again, like a Phoenix from the ashes. Even before the end of the war, the first people returned to their previous homes. A traditional architecture was supposed to remove all traces from the war and restore the former beauty of the area. With the first fairs and processions from 1919 onwards, the social fabric started to heal. Pilgrims started to come from all the corners of the earth to visit the many memorials and cemeteries. By the end of the twenties the reconstruction was largely finished. It is this post-war reconstruction that continues to define the characteristics of the region to this very day. This book has been published to commemorate the centenary of the recovery as guide for iconic sites of reconstruction, thematic exhibitions, public events, and walking and cycle routes that will take you to many striking sites of the reconstruction in the Westhoek. It also contains an historical overview of the revival of a region so heavily scourged by the Great War and new insights a century on.
