The “New” Tower. Thursday 13th September - Diksmuide



After more than a week of staring at the thing, we finally popped across the bridge to scale the dizzy heights of the Yser Tower.  Not that scaling it took a great deal of effort once we’d pressed the “close door” button on the lift, but there were still four flights of stairs to negotiate to get to roof deck which made it seem like a small victory.

The monuments have struggled at times to close the gap between Peace and Flemish Nationalism, but the fact that “Peace” gate was built from the rubble of the first tower which was destroyed by Anti-Nationalists, and that much of the main tower is constructed from the war-remnants of buildings from many of the villages and cities of Belgium makes the intent quite clear.

Here we are.  On the roof of a twenty-two storey building filled with artefacts and exhibitions which tell a story of horror so great that it will remain beyond our comprehension.  We can see the whole of the town, the fields that now hide so much of a truly grizzly history, and even the edge of the earth. 

Yet all we can do is gasp and say: “Look!  There’s our boat!”