Transformation: The IJzertoren Memorial Museum to the Museum aan de IJzer

Abstract

From its inception, the IJzer Pilgrimage Committee intended to house a museum within the IJzertoren memorial. At the 1928 pilgrimage these plans were shared with the public. Calling it a Flemish IJzermuseum, the Committee wanted to include everything related to “Flemish suffering” that drove the IJzer boys during the war: photographs, paintings, pieces of the heldenhuldezerken, portraits of the IJzer symbols and information on the camps in which they were incarcerated. But the museum was never realized. The construction of the second tower allowed for the inclusion of the infamous Golden Painting of Flanders (Gulden Doek van Vlaanderen) (1931–1944) by Hendrik Luyten and the addition of several glass cases filled with letters and other objects from World War I, which were displayed on the lower floors. But overall, the entirety of the tower remained empty.