Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 - Zonnebeke

Zonnebeke,

literally translated: sun - brook,

Zonnebeke is a Belgian municipality in the southwest of the province of West Flanders, the region known as the "Westhoek".
The name Zonnebeke comes from Sinnebeche. The first mention of Sinnebeche dates from around 1072.
This is stated in a charter of the bishop Drogo from Terwaan.
In this he asks Fulpoldus, castellan (that's my last name too :-)) of Ypres, to form and maintain a chapter of three canons in the already existing parish church.
This created a monastery that would later develop into the influential and powerful Augustinian abbey Zonnebeke.
A little further on, a Benedictine women's community, the Nonnenbos Abbey.
The religious troubles drove her to move to Ypres at the end of the 16th century. The men's abbey remained the center of the village's cultural,
administrative and economic activity for some 700 years, until the French Republic confiscated and sold all ecclesiastical goods in 1797. The fathers were then exiled.
Many battles took place around Zonnebeke during the First World War.
The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (and internationally known as Passchendaele),
was a major battle fought in 1917 during the First World War by British, Belgian, ANZAC and Canadian troops on the one hand and the German army on the other. the Ypres Salient.

MEMORIAL MUSEUM PASSCHENDAELE 1917,

The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 commemorates the Battle of Passchendaele (third battle of Ypres) in 1917.
There were then more than half a million victims. The museum is located in the castle park of Zonnebeke and was opened in 2004.
It focuses on the material aspects of the First World War. In addition to the informative museum rooms, there are recreated dugouts, a museum garden with reconstructed trenches, and a themed park.
Nearby is the Polygon Wood and Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world.

[rogerwhittle]

We haven't been for three years because of COVID and the age of our Scouts, but for some years, our Group Scout Leader and myself have taken five of our oldest Scouts to the Ypres area for a day. With a very early start and good roads, we can be at our first stop (Hill 62, Sanctuary Wood) by 11:00 local time. We then go on to Zonnebeke and the Passchendaele Museum.

This is an excellent museum on many levels. The children get a huge amount out of the displays and exhibits and we adults haven't yet got tired of it. There's always something we haven't seen. The dugout recreation and trench examples are a fitting exit route. We usually have lunch in the grounds.

We have two more 'stops' before going to Ypres for dinner as it gets dark. The first is newish for us and that is Langemark German cemetery, followed by our standard Tyne Cott visit. We find the children all slip into the same pattern as us. They just read names. Up and down the lines and round the walls, reading names. Sometimes they find their own family name (we've never found a relative though.) They each place a poppy cross on the grave of their choice.

Then it's dinner in a 'proper' restaurant in Ypres, which is a lovely little town and quite impossible to believe nothing there is older than about 1927. We attend the Last Post Ceremony, the Scouts lay a wreath then it's into the car and home as quick as we can. We mostly drop the children off at the homes before midnight. We are uncertain about future trips and I am missing them.

[davegoldsmith]

A few years ago I was visiting my nephew who lived in Iper, we went up to Passchendaele to visit a shop to buy a new three piece. We had visited Tyne Cot only the day before. It felt so weird doing such a normal thing, in such a place, knowing the death and destruction that had taken place in the same place, it still feels odd thinking about it now.

[Jeffybonbon]

The shame is we never learn ?? Just look at Ukarin today its all happening again