Ypres

Three battles here between 1914 and 1917 left the medieval town flattened; Churchill proposed leaving the ruins as a memorial, but the Belgians rebuilt the Cloth Hall and the cathedral from pre-war photographs and drawings. Under the Menin Gate, which carries the names of 54,000 missing men with no known grave, buglers have sounded the Last Post every evening at eight since 1928, without a fee and without a break except under occupation.