Understand
The region suffered from both world wars. In particular it was the site of the western front trench warfare which lasted the entire duration of WWI.
It is perhaps Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's famous poem which best describes the horrors witnessed in the region during the last century:
"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below."
