Musée de la Rubanerie

Ypres


This unexpectedly fascinating museum celebrates the ribbon-making industry, Comines’ economic mainstay since 1719. On weekends, passionate, knowledgeable museum staff set the antique machinery in motion and use cunningly devised model mechanisms to explain how they work. Suddenly ribbon looms, bootstrap twisters and zipper functionality all seem remarkably engrossing. French language skills certainly help.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Ypres attractions

1. Hill 60

4.89 MILES

Western Front battlefield.

3. Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62) Museum

5.35 MILES

This gnome-fronted, surreally ordinary house displays a chaotic hotchpotch of WWI helmets, shoes, guns and harrowing photos, some in antiquated wooden…

5. Park Bellewaerde

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This grand-scale high-adrenaline amusement park is the perfect place to give the kids a break from the histories of war.

6. Hooge Crater Museum

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In a quaint repurposed chapel on the Ypres–Menen road (N8), this small but characterful two-room museum is entered between assorted WWI sandbags, rusty…

7. Kasteelpark Zonnebeke

7.13 MILES

This lake-fronted Normandy-chalet-style mansion and gardens are located in the centre of Zonnebeke village. The mansion was built in 1922 to replace a…

8. Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917

7.14 MILES

Within the grounds of Kasteelpark Zonnebeke you'll find this polished WWI museum charting local battle progressions with plenty of multilingual…