Fodor's Expert Review Menenpoort
About 100 yards east of the Grote Markt, the Menenpoort is among the most moving of war memorials. It was built near the old Menin gate, along the route Allied soldiers took toward the front line. Troops on the “Menin road” endured brutal, insistent German artillery attacks; one section was dubbed “Hellfire Corner.” After World War I, the British built the vast arch in memory of the 300,000 soldiers who perished in this corridor. The names of some 55,000 soldiers who died before August 15, 1917, and whose bodies were missing, are inscribed. Since 1928, every night at 8, traffic is stopped at the Menin gate as the Last Post is blown on silver bugles, gifts of the British Legion. The practice was interrupted during World War II, but it was resumed the night Polish troops liberated the town, September 6, 1944. Be sure to witness this truly breathtaking experience.
