Poperinge (; french: Poperinghe, ; vls, Poperienge) is a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
located in the
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
province of
West Flanders
)
, settlement_type = Province of Belgium
, image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg
, flag_size =
, image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg
, shield_size =
, image_map ...
,
Flemish Region
The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...
, and has a history going back to medieval times. The municipality comprises the town of Poperinge proper and surrounding villages. The area is famous for its
hops
Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...
and
lace
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...
.
The town
Poperinge is situated about 13 km (8 miles) to the west of
Ypres
Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though
the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...
(Ieper). The region is famous for growing hops and furnishes 80% of Belgian production. The town is home to the national hop museum and is called "hops city", ''hoppe stad'' in Dutch, a play on ''hoofd stad'', the word for capital. A triennial hop festival and parade is held in the month of September. The local brew is known as Hommel (which means hops in the West Flanders dialect).
The
carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
in the tower of the town's oldest church, Sint-Bertinuskerk, was noted as one of the most beautiful in Flanders in mediaeval times. It was destroyed during wartime in 1677 and restored in 1781.
Poperinge is
twinned with
*
Zatec in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, since 1964
*
Wolnzach
Wolnzach (, locally ) is a municipality in the district of Pfaffenhofen in Bavaria, Germany. It is also a "seal district" (''"Siegelbezirk"'') of the hop-planting area Hallertau, and home of important hops-related institutions such as the Germ ...
in Germany (centre of hop production in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
), since 1965, in recognition of which the town was presented with a traditional German maypole in 1976
*
Hythe
Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to:
Places Australia
* Hythe, Tasmania
Canada
*Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada
England
* T ...
, in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, the county which has historically been the centre of hop-growing in England
*
Berck
Berck (), sometimes referred to as Berck-sur-Mer (, literally ''Berck on Sea''), is a commune in the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais. It lies within the Marquenterre regional park, an ornithological nature reserve.
Geography
Situa ...
in
Nord-Pas de Calais
Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-C ...
, since 1980
*
Rixensart
Rixensart (; wa, Ricsinsåt) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On January 1, 2018, Rixensart had a total population of 22,401. The total area is 17.54 km² which gives a population density of ...
in
Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant (french: Brabant wallon ; nl, Waals-Brabant ; wa, Roman Payis) is a province located in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the province of Flemish Brabant (Flemish Region) and ...
, Belgium, since 1990
Poperinge is the birthplace of
Dirk Frimout
Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout (born 21 March 1941 in Poperinge, Belgium) is an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. He flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-45 as a payload specialist, making him the first Belgian in sp ...
, Belgium's first astronaut, after whom the town park is named.
Administration
In addition to the town centre of Poperinge, the municipality also comprises the submunicipalities (so-called "
deelgemeente
A deelgemeente (, literally ''part-municipality'') or section ( French) is a subdivision of a municipality in Belgium and, until March 2014, in the Netherlands as well.
Belgium
Each municipality in Belgium that existed as a separate entity on 1 J ...
n") of Krombeke,
Proven
Proven is a rural village in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a "deelgemeente" of the municipality Poperinge. The village has about 1400 inhabitants.
The church and parish of Proven are named after Saint Victor. The Saint Victor Churc ...
,
Reningelst
Reningelst is a rural village in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a "deelgemeente" of the municipality Poperinge. The village has about 1405 inhabitants.
The deelgemeente of De Klijte used to be a part of Reningelst (then independent, ...
,
Roesbrugge-Haringe Roesbrugge-Haringe is a place in the Belgian province of West Flanders. It is a part of the municipality (a deelgemeente) of Poperinge. Roesbrugge-Haringe consists of two small rural villages, Roesbrugge and Haringe, located in the north western r ...
and Watou. The hamlets of
Abele and Sint-Jan-Ter-Biezen are also located within the municipality, but they do not have the status of "deelgemeente", since they were not independent municipalities before the mergers of municipalities which took place in Belgium in the 1970s.
Roesbrugge-Haringe actually comprises two separate villages,
Roesbrugge
Roesbrugge is a small rural village in the Belgian province of West Flanders. Roesbrugge is the larger of two villages that make up the "deelgemeente" Roesbrugge-Haringe in the municipality of Poperinge. Roesbrugge is located in the northwestern ...
and Haringe. The hamlet of Abele is located on the border with France and partially lies on French territory.
The municipality borders many rural villages, and because of the long border is also close to many French municipalities.
History
Archaeological finds in the area date local habitation back to the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
period. Under the Romans a link was made to it from the road between
Cassel Cassel may refer to:
People
* Cassel (surname)
Places
;France
* Cassel, Nord, a town and commune in northern France
** Battle of Cassel (1071)
** Battle of Cassel (1328)
** Battle of Cassel (1677)
;Germany
* Cassel, Germany, a city in Hesse re ...
and
Aardenburg
Aardenburg is a small city close to the Dutch border with Belgium. It is part of the Sluis Municipality, located in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. Its medieval name was Rodenburgh (Red Castle).
In the Sint-Baafskerk, (Saint Bavo's C ...
. In the time of the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
it appeared under the name ''Pupurningahem'' and was made subject to the ecclesiastical benefice of
Saint Omer in the mid-7th century. The Count of Flanders,
Dietrich of Alsace, granted the town a charter in 1147 at the request of the abbot. From this time it began to thrive as a cloth-making centre and, in order to accommodate the growing population, the churches of Saint John and of Our Lady were added in 1290 to the already existing Sint-Bertinuskerk.
In 1322
Louis de Nevers forbade cloth-making outside Ypres, which led the citizenry to join a revolt against him the following year. Nor did they ever submit to this restraint on their prosperity and were forever finding new ways to evade the restriction. Their resistance during this period gained them the nickname of ''keikoppen'' (cobble-heads), a term first recorded in 1341, when the Ypres
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
took revenge on the town.
During the disturbances associated with the
Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
, Poperinge suffered from the shifting allegiances of the Counts of Flanders and their commercial consequences. When they supported the French, the wool trade with England was interrupted. In the course of the consequent revolt, the town was sacked and burned by French troops in 1382. Then in 1436 it suffered the same fate from an English army. In 1513, at a time of declining prosperity, much of the town was again destroyed by fire, and then in 1563 the same happened again. During this period Poperinge was stirred up to support the Protestant cause and took part in the
iconoclastic fury
''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...
of 1566. It was in the consequent fighting and persecution that the town and its trade were finally ruined.
![Poperinge 1914](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Poperinge_1914.jpg)
Matters were made worse by the wars between the French and the Dutch for control of the region. By the
treaty of Nijmegen
The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen ('; german: Friede von Nimwegen) were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Repub ...
in 1678 the town passed into French hands and then returned to the Spaniards by the
treaty of Ryswick
The Peace of Ryswick, or Rijswijk, was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Rijswijk between 20 September and 30 October 1697. They ended the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War between France and the Grand Alliance, which included England, ...
in 1697, before being ceded to the Austrians in 1713 by the
treaty of Utrecht
The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...
. In 1794 it was absorbed by revolutionary France into the
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...
of Lys. Following the defeat of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
it was included in the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands
The United Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden; french: Royaume uni des Pays-Bas) is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed between 1815 and 1839. The United Netherlands was cr ...
, from which Belgium revolted in 1830. Since then Poperinge has repaired its fortunes by concentrating on hop production, the growing of which was first introduced in the 15th century.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the town was one of only two in Belgium not under German occupation. It was used to billet British troops and also provided a safe area for field hospitals. Known familiarly as "Pop", it was just behind the front line and formed an important link for the soldiers and their families, especially through the rest house known as Talbot House (or "
Toc H
Toc H (also TH) is an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. A soldiers' rest and recreation centre ...
"). A grim reminder of that time remains within the town hall, where two death cells are preserved, and outside in the courtyard, where there is a public execution post used by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...
s. Another reminder is the location of a number of military cemeteries on the outskirts of the town with the graves of Canadian, British, Australian, French, German, US servicemen and men of the Chinese Labour Corps. One of these is
Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery
Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. After Tyne Cot, it is the second largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces i ...
for soldiers who had been wounded near Ypres and later died in the large Allied
casualty clearing stations located in the area.
Literary associations
Poperinge is mentioned by two major English poets.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
makes it the birthplace of his Flemish knight in "
The Tale of Sir Thopas" from the ''Canterbury Tales''. Some 150 years later
John Skelton John Skelton may refer to:
*John Skelton (poet) (c.1460–1529), English poet.
* John de Skelton, MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (died 1439), MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (American footb ...
follows a line in Flemish with the mention that 'In Popering grew pears when parrot was an egg' in his enigmatic poem "Speak Parrot". The poem is an attack on
Cardinal Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...
and the line is taken to refer to his ambition to become Pope.
The town has also been associated with several
Neo-Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
poets. Jacques May (Jacobus Majus) was born in Poperinge and left a Latin verse epistle in
sapphics
The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest ...
dated 1563. Later in the century
Maximiliaan de Vriendt
Maximiliaan de Vriendt, Latinized Maximus Æmilianus Vrientius (1559–1614), was a Neo-Latin poet and a civic office-holder in the city of Ghent.
Life
De Vriendt was born at Zandenburg Castle, Veere, on 31 January 1559, to Jacques Jacobs de Vrien ...
, who was born elsewhere, wrote a poem that praised the town and its churches:
:::''Non formosa pales, non hospitae in urbe napeae,''
:::''Non agiles radii, Palidiique coli''
:::''Non celebres baiae (quae dos tua propria) tantis''
:::''Nominibus celebrem te, Poperinga vehunt:''
:::''Quantum larga manus, pietasque insigne avorum,''
:::''In superos templis testificata sacris.''
:::''Omnia de nobis praedantur fata: Tonanti''
:::''Quas damus, has solas semper habemus opes.''
The Flemish poet Gislain de Coninck, who was born in the town, translated the Latin poems of Charles Wynkius in ''Himni, Quorum Usus Est In Ecclesiastico Dei Cultu'', and the two were published together in 1573. Then in the following century there were two more Latin poets from the town, Joannes Bartholomaeus Roens and Petrus Wenis (1648-1726). Wenis published ''Gheestelycken nachtegael'' (The Spiritual Nightingale, 1698) on the miracle that restored a still-born child to life in 1479, an event associated with the statue of Our Lady in Sint-Janskerk that is still celebrated.
In modern times, the town was referred to in one of the epigrams in
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
’s ''Amœnitates Belgicæ''. In “Une Béotie belge” the sophisticated French-speakers of Brussels look down on the rustic Poperinghe of their Flemish compatriots. In the following century, the town is the subject of the imagist night piece "Poperinghe 1917" by the Canadian poet
.
[Brian Douglas Tennyson, ''The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs'', The Scarecrow Press, 2013, p.345]
note 1544
/ref>
The Flemish novelist Anne Provoost
Anne Provoost (born 26 July 1964) is a Flemish author who now lives in Antwerp with her husband and three children.
Career
Anne Provoost was born in the Belgian town of Poperinge. She grew up in a family of four children in West Flanders and w ...
, who now lives in Antwerp, was born in Poperinge in 1964.
Gallery
File:Poperinge - City Hall 2.jpg, Poperinge Town Hall in 2007
File:Poperinge-Sint-Bertinuskerk 3.jpg, Sint Bertinuskerk, the oldest church in Poperinge
File:Poperinge - Sint-Janskerk.jpg, Sint Janskerk, the site of the mediaeval miracle
File:Poperinge - Keikop 1.jpg, The keikop monument to the obstinacy of the citizens
File:Hopmuseum Poperinge 1.jpg, An old warehouse at the hop museum
File:Poperinge war memorial.jpg, War memorial
References
External links
Official website
- Information available in Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and limited information available in English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, French and German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
*Altmeyer, Jean-Jacques
''Notice historique sur la ville de Poperinghe'', Ghent 1840
{{Authority control
Municipalities of West Flanders