Veurne
Tourism

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bombardment during the First and Second World Wars but have been excellently restored. Ham from Veurne is a noted delicacy.

Veurne grew up around a castle erected by the Counts of Flanders in the ninth C. as protection against the Normans and it became the chief place of the counts' fortified estate of Veurne-Ambacht. It reached its zenith under the regentship of the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella in the 17th C. when most of the stately buildings around the Grote Markt came into being. The French strengthened the fortifications which had been set up in the 14th C. and which, under the Austrians, were razed to the ground in 1783. In the First World War Veurne was the most important town of the small part of Belgium not occupied by German troops and in spite of artillery attack could not be taken. During the Battle of Ypres King Albert I chose the town hall as his headquarters. In the Second World War the town suffered more severe damage than between 1914 and 1918.