{{Short description|Village in West Flanders, Belgium}} {{Infobox settlement |official_name = Boezinge |other_name = |motto = |settlement_type = Village |image_skyline = File:Boezinge Churchyard -4.JPG |image_caption = St. Michael's Church in Boezinge |image_flag = |image_seal = |image_map = |pushpin_map = Belgium |pushpin_label_position = right |pushpin_map_caption = Location in Belgium |pushpin_mapsize = 250 |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_type1 = Region |subdivision_type2 = Province |subdivision_type3 = Municipality |subdivision_type4 = |subdivision_name = {{flagcountry|Belgium}} |subdivision_name1 = Flemish Region |subdivision_name2 = West Flanders |subdivision_name3 = Ypres |subdivision_name4 = |established_title = |established_date = |government_type = |leader_title = |leader_name = |area_footnotes = <ref name="erfgoed">{{cite web|url=https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/themas/14134 |title=Boezinge |website=Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed |access-date=28 February 2021|language=nl}}</ref> |area_magnitude = |area_total_sq_mi = |area_total_km2 = 17.72 |area_land_sq_mi = |area_land_km2 = |area_water_sq_mi = |area_water_km2 = |area_urban_sq_mi = |area_urban_km2 = |area_metro_km2 = |area_metro_sq_mi = |population_as_of = 1999 |population_footnotes = <ref name="pop1999">{{cite web|url=http://www.westhoek.be/streekplatform/Tabellen/3.2..htm |title=Arrondissement Veurne |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928072054/http://www.westhoek.be/streekplatform/Tabellen/3.2..htm |access-date=28 February 2021|archive-date=2007-09-28 |language=nl}}</ref> |population_total = 2,216 |population_density_km2 = auto |population_density_sq_mi = |population_metro = |population_density_metro_km2 = |population_density_metro_sq_mi = |population_urban = |population_density_urban_km2 = |population_density_urban_sq_mi = |timezone = CET |utc_offset = |coordinates = {{coord|50.895887|N|2.855759|E|region:BE_type:city|display=title,inline}} |elevation_footnotes = |elevation_ft = |elevation_m = |website = |footnotes = }} '''Boezinge''' ({{IPA|nl|ˈbuzɪŋə}}; {{langx|vls|Boezienge}}) is a village in the municipality of Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. Boezinge can be reached via the N369 road in the direction of Diksmuide. It was an independent municipality until 1977.
It hosts the historical brewery {{ill|Brouwerij Het Sas|nl|Brouwerij Het Sas}}.
==History== Boezinge was first mentioned in 1119 as Boesigha. The village was an ''heerlijkheid''. Until 1556, it was part of the diocese of Terwaan.<ref name="erfgoed"/>
In World War I, the village belonged to the Ypres Salient, which made it the site of the Battles of Ypres between German and Allied forces. Today there are memorials and war cemeteries in the area, many of which are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
thumb|left|District devastated by the fighting of 1914 in Boezinge (Belgium).
In 1970, the municipality merged with Zuidschote, and in 1977, it was merged into Ypres.<ref name="erfgoed"/>
==Commemoration of World War I ==
===Yorkshire Trench=== In the 1990s an original British trench system ("Yorkshire Trench") was discovered by amateur archaeologists, on the site of an industrial estate near the village.<ref name="Legg">{{cite web|last=Legg|first=Joanna|title=Yorkshire Trench, Boezinge, Ypres Salient|url=http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/remains-yorkshire-trench.htm|work=www.greatwar.co.uk|access-date=18 May 2013}}</ref> Yorkshire Trench was a first line trench for about one year between summer or autumn 1916 until the summer of 1917. In spring of 1917, 173rd Tunnelling Company added a deep dugout to the existing trench. The completed Yorkshire Trench dugout then served as headquarters for the 13th and 16th Battalions of the Royal Welch Fusiliers at the start of the Battle of Passchendaele later that year.<ref name="see online">Nicholas Saunders, '' Killing Time: Archaeology and the First World War'', The History Press 2007 ({{ISBN|978-0750945196}}) [https://books.google.com/books?id=aVY7AwAAQBAJ&dq=YORKSHIRE+TRENCH+tunnelling&pg=PT116 see online]</ref> The BEF had decided to carry out all operations in the offensive of summer 1917 from deep dugouts. East of the Ypres Canal in the close vicinity of Yorkshire Trench there were several more dugouts, seven of which - all south and southeast of Yorkshire Trench - were finished by the 173rd or 179th Tunnelling Companies. Of these, ''Yorkshire Trench'', ''Butt 18'', ''Nile Trench'' and ''Heading Lane Dugout'' were double battalion headquarters, ''Bridge 6'' was a brigade headquarters, and'' Lancashire Farm Dugout'' contained two battalion and two brigade headquarters.<ref name= mausershooters>[http://www.mausershooters.org/diggers/E/activiteiten/yorkshire-trench/restauratie.htm Activities of The Diggers - Restoration of the Yorkshire Trench & Dug-out] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031439/http://www.mausershooters.org/diggers/E/activiteiten/yorkshire-trench/restauratie.htm |date=2017-12-01 }}, access date 10 July 2015</ref> The condition of the ground made digging the deep dugouts extremely difficult and dangerous. Work had to be carried out silently and secretly, facing an observant enemy who was only a few hundred metres away. About 180 dugout sites have been located in the Ypres Salient and in the 1990s some of them were entered, at least in part.<ref name="mausershooters"/> Yorkshire Trench was rediscovered by amateur archaeologists and systematically excavated in 1998. Although the area is now part of a large industrial estate, the location was opened to the public in 2003<ref name="Legg"/><ref name="see online"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.toerismeieper.be/images/photolib/449.jpg |title=See aerial photo of the site on toerismeieper.be |access-date=2015-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711075717/http://www.toerismeieper.be/images/photolib/449.jpg |archive-date=2015-07-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Yorkshire Trench is located close to the John McCrae memorial site at Essex Farm.<ref name="mausershooters"/><ref name="boesinghe_01">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/get_started/boesinghe_01.shtml Boesinghe - The Forgotten Battlefield], access date 10 July 2015</ref><ref name="flandersyorkshire">[http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/yorkshire.html The Yorkshire Trench, Boezinge], access date 10 July 2015</ref>
===John McCrae Memorial Site=== {{Main|Site John McCrae}}
===Welsh Memorial Park=== {{Main|Welsh Memorial Park, Ypres}}
===War cemeteries=== * Artillery Wood Cemetery, where the Welsh poet Hedd Wyn and the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge are buried * Bard Cottage Cemetery * Boezinge Churchyard war graves * Colne Valley Cemetery * Dragoon Camp Cemetery * Duhallow ADS Cemetery * Essex Farm Cemetery * La Belle Alliance Cemetery * No Man's Cot Cemetery * Talana Farm Cemetery * Welsh Cemetery (Caesar's Nose)
===The Castle of Boezinge (Boesinghe)=== thumb|The Castle of Boezinge
The estate was destroyed during the first world war in July 1917 and rebuilt after the war.
In the private park lies a British command post.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Ypres Category:Populated places in West Flanders