museum
In Flanders Fields Museum
Set in Ypres' rebuilt Cloth Hall, this museum tells the harrowing story of the WWI Western Front trenches.
14 km · about 25 min drive
EuropeBelgiumWallonia
Ploegsteert
Wallonia, Belgium · Europe
About Ploegsteert
Ploegsteert works well as a base: 5 minutes from Frelinghien, 46km from De Panne Beach.
Ploegsteert is in Wallonia, Belgium, with about 4,400 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is Frelinghien, about 4 km away.
Ploegsteert (French pronunciation: [pluɡstɛʁ]; Dutch pronunciation: ['pluxsteːrt]; Picard: Ploster) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Comines-Warneton, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
It is the most westerly settlement of Wallonia. It is approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi)Read more
north of the French border. Created in 1850 on part of the territory of Warneton, it includes the hamlet of Le Bizet, which is the border with France (there is also a hamlet named "Le Bizet" in France). It is largely francophone, with facilities for Dutch speakers.
In late 1914 and early 1915, the nearby Ploegsteert Wood was the site of fierce World War I fighting. Today there are numerous cemeteries and memorials, including the Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) CWGC Cemetery and the Berks CWGC Cemetery Extension with the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, which commemorates more than 11,000 British and Empire servicemen who died outside the Ypres Salient and have no known grave. From January to May 1916, Winston Churchill served in the area as Commanding Officer (Lieutenant-Colonel) of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Another nearby burial ground is the Lancashire Cottage Cemetery.
As part of Comines-Warneton, Ploegsteert was declared a sister city of Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, England, in 2006; this was partly initiated through the finding of letters from a 16-year-old soldier from Wolverton named Albert French. He is buried in Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery, just outside the village.
The village is home to a carpentry museum.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is there to see near Ploegsteert?
Within an hour or so of Ploegsteert: In Flanders Fields Museum (14 km), Menin Gate (14 km), Vieux Lille (16 km), In de Vrede (22 km).
Are there any good drives near Ploegsteert?
The nearest famous roads are Koninklijke Baan Coast Road, Chimay Street Circuit and Brouwersdam.
Where is Ploegsteert?
Ploegsteert is in Wallonia, Belgium, about 4 km from Frelinghien.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 4,352
- Continent
- Europe
- Country
- Belgium
- Region
- Wallonia
- Timezone
- Europe/Brussels
- Coordinates
- 50.7266, 2.8802
Tags
Worth the detour from Ploegsteert
8 notable places within an hour's drive.
landmark
Menin Gate
A vast memorial arch bearing 54,000 names of the missing, where the Last Post sounds every evening at eight.
14 km · about 25 min drive
landmark
Vieux Lille
Lively old quarter of Flemish brick gables and grand squares, the cultural capital of the French north.
16 km · about 20 min drive
cafe
In de Vrede
The abbey café opposite Saint-Sixtus monastery in Westvleteren: effectively the only place on earth to reliably drink Westvleteren 12, long rated the world's best beer, at the source with a slab of abbey cheese.
22 km · about 25 min drive
museum
Louvre-Lens
A luminous glass-and-steel satellite of the Louvre rising from a former coal-mining town.
34 km · about 40 min drive
landmark
Canadian National Vimy Memorial
Twin soaring pylons crown a WWI battlefield of preserved trenches and craters above the Douai plain.
39 km · about 45 min drive
beach
De Panne Beach
Belgium's widest sandy beach, famous for land-yachting and bordering the wild Westhoek dunes near the French border.
46 km · about 55 min drive
landmark
Bruges Markt
The medieval heart of Bruges, where the climbable Belfry tower looms over a square of stepped-gable guild houses.
59 km · about 70 min drive
Driving roads near Ploegsteert
3 named roads, passes and coastal drives within 150km.
- 62 kmKoninklijke Baan Coast RoadThe N34 'Royal Road' hugs nearly the whole Belgian coast, sharing its corridor with the world's longest tram line and passing Belle Epoque De Haan, dunes and beach resorts.
Driving in Belgium
- Drives on
- the right
- Petrol
- ~€1.74/litre
- Motorway tolls
- None
When to drive here
April to October
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