Grand Hôtel Bellevue

Westende is a town in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It lies on the Belgian coast, also called the Flemish coast. It used to be the far west (West-ende: Dutch for west-end) of the island Testerep which lay along the Belgian coast.

Middelkerke (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɪdəlˌkɛrkə]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, on the North Sea, west of Ostend. The municipality comprises the villages of Leffinge, Lombardsijde, Mannekensvere, Middelkerke proper, Schore, Sint-Pieters-Kapelle, Slijpe, Westende and Wilskerke. On January 1, 2006, Middelkerke had a total population of 17,841. The total area is 75.65 km2 which gives a population density of 236 inhabitants per km2. The first reference of 'Middelkerca' is found in 1218. Before 1876 it mainly was a farming settlement. In 1902, Middelkerke became the world's first municipality to have their drinking water disinfected by continuous chlorination.

Lombardsijde, also Lombartzyde, is a district in the Belgian municipality of Middelkerke in West Flanders province, in northwestern Belgium near Nieuwpoort. Fighting occurred in and around Lombardsijde during World War I.

Testerep (or Ter Streep) once comprised an island along the Belgian coast. It existed as early as the 10th century. Fishing villages were scattered about, including Ostend and Westende, with Ostend on the far east (Oost-ende: east-end), Westende on the far west (West-ende: west-end), and Middelkerke (literally "middle-church") the middle of the island. Later, canals and dikes were built and the island became connected to the West Flanders mainland.

The British Nieuport Memorial is a First World War memorial, located in the Belgian port city of Nieuwpoort (French: Nieuport), which is at the mouth of the River Yser. The memorial lists 547 names of British officers and men with no known grave who were killed in the Siege of Antwerp in 1914 or in the defence of this part of the Western Front from June to November 1917. Those that fought in 1914 were members of the Royal Naval Division. The fighting in 1917, when XV Corps defended the line from Sint-Joris to the sea, included the German use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas and Blue Cross. Designed by the Scottish architect William Bryce Binnie, the memorial is an 8-metre-high pylon of Euville stone, a limestone from Euville. The names of those commemorated are cast on bronze panels surrounding the base of the pylon. Three lions, carved by the British sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger, stand guard at the corners of the memorial's triangular paved platform. Around the top of the bronze name panels is cast the words from Laurence Binyon's famous poem, "For the Fallen": They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,We will remember them. The memorial was unveiled on 1 July 1928 by Sir George Macdonogh, a commissioner for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission). Macdonogh had been a staff officer and general for the Directorate of Military Intelligence for most of the war, being appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces in September 1918. The King Albert I Memorial, dedicated to both the King and his Belgian troops during the First World War, is located directly next to the Nieuport Memorial.

The King Albert I Memorial, also named the King Albert I Monument (Dutch: Koning Albert I-monument; French: Monument au Roi Albert Ier) is a memorial at the Belgian coastal city of Nieuwpoort. It is located right outside the old town, on the right bank of the Yser river at the lock complex Ganzepoot. The monument was erected in 1938 after a design of Julien de Ridder and honours both King Albert I of Belgium and the Belgian troops at the time of the First World War.

Wilskerke is a small rural village in Belgium, situated in de Polder region, about 1.5 km from the coastline. In 1977, it became a part (deelgemeente) of the municipality of Middelkerke.

Mannekensvere is a small rural village in Belgium, located in the Polder region. Mannekensvere is a part ("deelgemeente") of the seaside municipality of Middelkerke. The village is located along the Yser river. Mannekensvere was an independent municipality until 1971, when it became a part of the newly formed municipality Spermalie. In 1977, Spermalie was dissolved, and Mannekensvere was added to Middelkerke.

The Yser (US: ee-ZAIR, French: [izɛʁ]; Dutch: IJzer [ˈɛizər] ) is a river that rises in French Flanders (the north of France), enters the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows through the Ganzepoot and into the North Sea at the town of Nieuwpoort. The source of the Yser is in Buysscheure (Buisscheure), in the Nord department of northern France. It flows through Bollezeele (Bollezele), Esquelbecq (Ekelsbeke), and Bambecque (Bambeke). After approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) of its 78-kilometre (48 mi) course, it leaves France and enters Belgium. It then flows through Diksmuide and out into the North Sea at Nieuwpoort. During the Battle of the Yser in the First World War, by opening the sluices, part of the polder west of the Yser was flooded with seawater between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide to provide an obstacle to the advancing German Army and keep westernmost Belgium safe from German occupation. The Yser river itself never overflowed its banks.

The Battle of the Yser (French: Bataille de l'Yser, Dutch: Slag om de IJzer) was a battle of the First World War that took place in October 1914 between the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide, along a 35 km (22 mi) stretch of the Yser River and the Yperlee Canal, in Belgium. The front line was held by a large Belgian force, which halted the German advance in a costly defensive battle. The victory at the Yser allowed Belgium to retain a small strip of territory, with Germany in control of 95 per cent of Belgian territory, which made King Albert a Belgian national hero, sustained national pride and provided a venue for commemorations of heroic sacrifice for the next hundred years.

Nieuwpoort ( NEW-port, Dutch: [ˈniupoːrt] ; West Flemish: Nieuwpôort; French: Nieuport [njøpɔʁ]) is a city and municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Nieuwpoort proper, as well as Ramskapelle and Sint-Joris. On 1 January 2008, Nieuwpoort had a total population of 11,062. Its land area is 31.00 km² which gives a population density of 350 inhabitants per km². The current mayor of Nieuwpoort is Geert Vanden Broucke (CD&V) In Nieuwpoort, the Yser flows into the North Sea. It was also the home of a statue created by Jan Fabre called Searching for Utopia. The Stadshalle Grain Hall (market hall) with its belfry was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site, owing to its historical civic (not religious) importance and its architecture.

Operation Hush was a British plan to make amphibious landings on the Belgian coast in 1917 during the First World War, supported by an attack from Nieuwpoort and the Yser bridgehead, positions which were a legacy of the Battle of the Yser in 1914. Several plans were considered in 1915 and 1916, then shelved due to operations elsewhere. Operation Hush was intended to begin when the Third Battle of Ypres, the main offensive at Ypres, had advanced to Roulers, Koekelare and Thourout, linked by advances by the French and Belgian armies in between. Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beach Party) was a German spoiling attack, conducted on 10 July by Marine-Korps-Flandern, in anticipation of an Allied coastal operation. The Germans used mustard gas for the first time, supported by a mass of heavy artillery, captured part of the bridgehead over the Yser and annihilated two British infantry battalions. After several postponements, Operation Hush was cancelled on 14 October 1917, as the advance at Ypres did not meet the objectives required to begin the attack. In April 1918, the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge to sink blockships in the canal entrance to trap U-boats, which closed the canal for a short time. From September to October 1918, the Belgian coast was occupied by the Allies during the Fifth Battle of Ypres.