Ostend

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.