The vast German cemetery at Langemark is entered by a sober black pavilion designed by Belgian architects Govaert & Vanhoutte.
Here you can watch historical films on three screens before entering the cemetery along a path lined with willows.
This is a quiet and melancholy place dotted with rugged stone crosses. The soldiers’ names are carved in small letters on stones that lie flat on the ground. There are no personal details, nothing to say who they were, or where they died.
Many of the dead were young volunteer students who joined the German army in the early years of the war. More than 44,000 soldiers are buried here, but you might be the only visitor on the day you go.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
