Mesen

1,040 inhabitants and 358 hectares: Mesen is officially the smallest town in Belgium. The place was once an important business location: in the 11th and 12th centuries, all cloth merchants from Lille, Ypres, Bruges and Torhout came here for the annual market.

St. Nicholas Church with its striking dome dates back to those golden years. The entire building was damaged during the First World War and only partially rebuilt in 1928. Only the tower is a reminder of what the church must have looked like in the past.

Want to keep track? Then climb the tower. 37 meters above the ground you have a wonderful panoramic view over the hills of the Heuvelland to Lille.

Mesen (also called Messines) is the smallest city in Belgium with only about 1075 inhabitants. Mesen has a rich history dating back to Roman times and played an important role in medieval trade, especially in the cloth and leather industry . The town is best known for the Battle of Mesen during the First World War, where it was a strategic location . Today, Mesen is home to several monuments and memorials, such as the New Zealand Division Memorial and the Irish Peace Tower, which commemorate the history and sacrifices of the soldiers during the war .

The infamous Mine Battle, one of the bloodiest episodes of the Great War, took place between here and Ypres on the morning of June 7, 1917. At 3:00am, as the first signs of daylight were appearing, a gigantic explosion rent the air, and Mesen, Wijtschate and Hill 60 were literally on fire. British forces had detonated 19 massive mines beneath German trenches, blasting tons of soil, steel, and bodies into the sky. The immense shock was reportedly felt in London. The area was transformed into a large crater landscape, which is still healing its wounds 100 years later. The largest and best known is the Spanbroekmolen crater, also known as the Pool of Peace.
Earlier, between December 1914 and February 1915 a young German soldier, with minor injuries, was cared for at Bethleem Farm. During his rehabilitation he made various watercolours, including one of the destroyed Saint Nicholas Church, the original is held by the Pushkin Museum. His name? Adolf Hitler.
(Source: discoveringbelgium.com)