"The Yser Tower was built from 1928 to 1930 and was solemnly inaugurated on August 24, 1930.
Memorial to the First World War, many Flemings identified themselves in the interwar period with this monument honoring the suffering of Flemish soldiers fighting in the ranks of the Belgian army during the First World War. He also became the embodiment of a broader aspiration for Flemish emancipation.
The original tower was the target of a dynamite attack which destroyed it completely on the night of March 15 to 16, 1946. Two rival committees were established to rebuild it, one a moderate Catholic with in particular Tony Herbert (nl ) and the other more militant and carried by the new organization of Flemish veterans (Nieuw Verbond van Vlaamsche Oud-Strijders). It was rebuilt from 1956 to 1965, higher (84 meters) a few meters from the first. The remains of the old tower were used in 1950 to build the Peace Gate (Paxpoort or Poort van Vrede) in front of the tower, on the Yser pilgrimage meadow.
In 1997, the ensemble was restored, as was the crypt in which fallen soldiers lie. The place is considered a symbol of the oppression of the Flemish. Those responsible for the attack have never been arrested.
In 1986, the Yser Tower was recognized as a "Memorial of the Flemish Emancipation" by the Flemish Region.
With its 84 meters and 22 floors, the Yser Tower is the largest monument of peace in Europe. The crossed letters AVV VVK, present on one side of the tower, mean Alles Voor Vlaanderen, Vlaanderen Voor Kristus, in French "Tout pour la Flandre, la Flandre pour le Christ". The inscription "Never Again" is also found in the four languages ??of the warring parties on the Western Front during World War I (Dutch, French, English, German).
The Yser Tower was initially a place of remembrance of the Flemish war victims, but it also became a hotbed of the Flemish nationalist movement, which originated on the Yser. The Yser pilgrimage, which takes place at the foot of the tower every year, is a political demonstration against the war and for the autonomy of Flanders.
In the tower is a museum of war, peace and Flemish emancipation, which since 1998 has been part of the United Nations International Network of Museums for Peace."