Ostend (Flemish Oostende, French Ostende) on the North Sea coast is the home of the largest high seas fishing fleet in Belgium and the location of three technical schools of fishing. It is the most important ocean and ferry harbor in the country and deals with a large part of the ferry traffic to Great
Britain.
In addition, Ostend is the largest Belgian seaside resort and one of the most popular in Europe and can look back on a fashionable past; since 1933 the town also is able to call itself a spa.
Foreign trade is the lifeblood of Ostend, especially as fishing has suffered a decline, and the economy of the harbor is threatened by the building of the channel tunnel and with competition from the very modern port facilities of Zeebrugge, so that industry (ship building and fish processing) is of increased importance. Since 1733 oyster farming has been practiced in Ostend.
The town was originally a village at the east end of the spit of land Ter Streep which has meanwhile silted up. It is first mentioned in 814 and received its charter in 1267. A new harbor was built in the 15th C. and new defenses in 1583. At the end of the 16th C. Ostend was the last bastion of the Dutch in the southern Netherlands and was violently attacked by the Spaniards.
The archduchess Isabella vowed in 1601 to change her shirt only if this bastion fell. One can only hope that she did not comply with her vow for the siege lasted three years and caused 72,000 deaths. In the following centuries the town had various masters, Spanish, French and Austrian until it finally became Belgian. Shortly after that the first British arrived for a seaside holiday and Ostend began to develop into an extensive seaside resort of the Belle Epoque. In 1834 Queen Victoria and later the Belgian rulers also visited it. In the First World War Ostend, like Zeebrugge, was a German U-boat base and suffered greatly from the effects of the conflict; the Second World War brought several bombardments during which almost all the important buildings were damaged. The flood of 1953 also caused considerable damage when the dike between Ostend and Knokke-Heist gave way.
Visitors and residents of Ostend have discovered the joys of windsurfing and kite surfing. Wind is never in short supply on the Belgian coast thus providing ample opportunity for the sports. Ostend is also noted for its sea-side esplanade, pier, and fine-sand beaches.
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