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{{Infobox Belgium municipality
|name             = Poperinge
|type             = city
|picture          = Poperinge Town Hall and Grote Markt.jpg
|picture-legend   = Street banners welcome visitors to Poperinge's Town Hall and Grote Market
|map              = Poperinge West-Flanders Belgium Map.svg
|map-legend       = Location of Poperinge in West Flanders
|arms             = Poperinge wapen.svg
|flag             = Poperinge vlag.svg
|province         = [[West Flanders]]
|arrondissement   = [[Arrondissement of Ypres|Ypres]]
|nis              = 33021
|mayor            = Christof Dejaegher (CD&V)
|majority         = [[Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams|CD&V]], Samen
|postal-codes     = 8970, 8972, 8978
|telephone-area   = 057
|web              = [http://www.poperinge.be/ www.poperinge.be]
|coordinates      = {{coord|50|51|N|02|44|E|region:BE|display=inline,title}}
}}

'''Poperinge''' ({{IPA|nl|ˈpoːpəˌrɪŋə|-|Nl-Poperinge.wav}}; {{langx|fr|Poperinghe}}, {{lang|fr|Poperingue}} {{IPA|fr|pɔpʁɛ̃ɡ|}}; {{langx|vls|Poperienge}}) is a [[City status in Belgium|city]] and [[Municipalities of Belgium|municipality]] located in the [[Belgium|Belgian]] province of [[West Flanders]], [[Flemish Region]], and has a history going back to medieval times. The municipality comprises the town of Poperinge proper and surrounding villages. The area is famous for its [[hops]] and [[lace]].

==The town==
Poperinge is situated about 13 km (8 miles) to the west of [[Ypres]] (Ieper). The region is famous for growing hops and furnishes 80% of Belgian production. The town is home to the national hop museum and is called "hops city", ''hoppe stad'' in Dutch, a play on ''hoofd stad'', the word for capital. A triennial hop festival and parade is held in the month of September. The local brew is known as Hommel (which means hops in the West Flanders dialect).

The [[carillon]] in the tower of the town's oldest church, Sint-Bertinuskerk, was noted as one of the most beautiful in Flanders in medieval times. It was destroyed during wartime in 1677 and restored in 1781.<ref>Altmeyer (1840), pp. 58-9</ref>

==Administration==
In addition to the town centre of Poperinge, the municipality also comprises the submunicipalities (so-called "[[deelgemeente]]n") of Krombeke, [[Proven]], [[Reningelst]], [[Roesbrugge-Haringe]] and Watou. The hamlets of [[Abele (village)|Abele]] and Sint-Jan-Ter-Biezen are also located within the municipality, but they do not have the status of "deelgemeente", since they were not independent municipalities before the mergers of municipalities which took place in Belgium in the 1970s.

Roesbrugge-Haringe actually comprises two separate villages, [[Roesbrugge]] and Haringe. The hamlet of Abele is located on the border with France and partially lies on French territory.

{| border="0" style="border:1px solid #999; background:#fff;"
|-  style="text-align:center; background:#ccc;"
! # !! Name !! Area !! Population (1999)
|-  style="text-align:right; background:#efefef;"
|I || style="text-align:left;"| Poperinge || 47,61 || 12.644
|- style="text-align:right;"
|II || style="text-align:left;"| [[Krombeke]] || 8,54 || 711
|-  style="text-align:right; background:#efefef;"
|III || style="text-align:left;"| [[Proven]] || 13,10 || 1.394
|- style="text-align:right;"
|IV || style="text-align:left;"| [[Reningelst]] || 15,20 || 1.405
|-  style="text-align:right; background:#efefef;"
|V <br/><small>(VII)</small> <br/> <small>(VIII)</small>|| style="text-align:left;"| [[Roesbrugge-Haringe]] <br/> - [[Roesbrugge]] <br/> - [[Haringe]] || 11,60 <br/>&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp; || 1.105<br/>&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;
|- style="text-align:right;"
|VI <br/><small>(IX)</small> <br/> <small>(X)</small>|| style="text-align:left;"| [[Watou]] <br/> - [[Sint-Jan-Ter-Biezen]] <br/> - [[Abele (village)|Abele]] || 23,28 <br/>&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp; || 1.940 <br/>&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;
|}

The municipality borders many rural villages, and because of the long border is also close to many French municipalities.

==History==
Archaeological finds in the area date local habitation back to the [[Neolithic]] period. Under the Romans a link was made to it from the road between [[Cassel, Nord|Cassel]] and [[Aardenburg]]. In the time of the [[Franks]] it appeared under the name ''Pupurningahem'' and was made subject to the ecclesiastical benefice of [[Saint-Omer|Saint Omer]] in the mid-7th century. The Count of Flanders, [[Thierry, Count of Flanders|Dietrich of Alsace]], granted the town a charter in 1147 at the request of the abbot. From this time it began to thrive as a cloth-making centre and, in order to accommodate the growing population, the churches of Saint John and of Our Lady were added in 1290 to the already existing Sint-Bertinuskerk.

In 1322 [[Louis I, Count of Flanders|Louis de Nevers]] forbade cloth-making outside Ypres, which led the citizenry to join a revolt against him the following year. Nor did they ever submit to this restraint on their prosperity and were forever finding new ways to evade the restriction.<ref>John H. Munro, “Mediaeval Woolens” in ''The Cambridge history of western textiles'', Cambridge University 2003, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZljldSpV28UC&dq=Poperinge&pg=PA253 pp. 251-5]</ref> Their resistance during this period gained them the nickname of ''keikoppen'' (cobble-heads), a term first recorded in 1341, when the Ypres [[militia]] took revenge on the town.

During the disturbances associated with the [[Hundred Years War]], Poperinge suffered from the shifting allegiances of the Counts of Flanders and their commercial consequences. When they supported the French, the wool trade with England was interrupted. In the course of the consequent revolt, the town was sacked and burned by French troops in 1382. Then in 1436 it suffered the same fate from an English army. In 1513, at a time of declining prosperity, much of the town was again destroyed by fire, and then in 1563 the same happened again. During this period Poperinge was stirred up to support the Protestant cause and took part in the [[Beeldenstorm|iconoclastic fury]] of 1566. It was in the consequent fighting and persecution that the town and its trade were finally ruined.

[[File:Poperinge 1914.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Defending the town in 1914]]
Matters were made worse by the wars between the French and the Dutch for control of the region. By the [[treaty of Nijmegen]] in 1678 the town passed into French hands and then returned to the Spaniards by the [[treaty of Ryswick]] in 1697, before being ceded to the Austrians in 1713 by the [[treaty of Utrecht]]. In 1794 it was absorbed by revolutionary France into the [[département]] of Lys. Following the defeat of [[Napoleon]] it was included in the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]], from which Belgium revolted in 1830. Since then Poperinge has repaired its fortunes by concentrating on hop production, the growing of which was first introduced in the 15th century.<ref>The bulk of the information here is taken from the article in the [[:fr:Poperinge|French Wikipédia]] and from J-J.Altmeyer's [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jhg_AAAAcAAJ&q=Poperinghe ''Notice historique sur la ville de Poperinghe'']</ref>

During [[World War I]], the town was one of only two in Belgium not under German occupation. It was used to billet British troops and also provided a safe area for field hospitals. Known familiarly as "Pop", it was just behind the front line and formed an important link for the soldiers and their families, especially through the rest house known as Talbot House (or "[[Toc H]]"). A grim reminder of that time remains within the town hall, where two death cells are preserved, and outside in the courtyard, where there is a public execution post used by [[firing squad]]s. Another reminder is the location of a number of military cemeteries on the outskirts of the town with the graves of Canadian, British, Australian, French, German, US servicemen and men of the Chinese Labour Corps. One of these is [[Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery]] for soldiers who had been wounded near Ypres and later died in the large Allied [[casualty clearing station]]s located in the area.

==Transportation==
[[Poperinge railway station]] is the terminus of [[Belgian railway line 69]], which used to continue to [[Hazebrouck]] in France until the 1950s. It has an hourly service, IC-04, to [[Kortrijk]] and [[Antwerpen]].

==Literary associations==
Poperinge is mentioned by two major English poets. [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] makes it the birthplace of his Flemish knight in "[[The Tale of Sir Thopas]]" from the ''Canterbury Tales''.<ref>''Yborn he was in fer contree,/In Flaundres, al biyonde the see,/At Poperyng in the place'', [http://www.librarius.com/cantales/thopastl.htm lines 7-9]</ref> Some 150 years later [[John Skelton (poet)|John Skelton]] follows a line in Flemish with the mention that 'In Popering grew pears when parrot was an egg' in his enigmatic poem "Speak Parrot".<ref>''John Skelton, Selected Poems'' (ed. Gerald Hammond),  Manchester UK 1980 [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Trjd8OqOdwC&dq=In+Popering+grew+pears+ere+parrot+was+an+egg&pg=PA93 line 70, p. 93]</ref> The poem is an attack on [[Cardinal Wolsey]] and the line is taken to refer to his ambition to become Pope.<ref>David Wallace, ''Premodern Places'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=FtOyXfSSXS0C&q=Poperinge p. 130, note 51]</ref>

The town has also been associated with several [[Neo-Latin]] poets. Jacques May (Jacobus Majus) was born in Poperinge and left a Latin verse epistle in [[Sapphic stanza|sapphics]] dated 1563. Later in the century [[Maximiliaan de Vriendt]], who was born elsewhere, wrote a poem that praised the town and its churches:
:::''Non formosa pales, non hospitae in urbe napeae,''
:::''Non agiles radii, Palidiique coli''
:::''Non celebres baiae (quae dos tua propria) tantis''
:::''Nominibus celebrem te, Poperinga vehunt:''
:::''Quantum larga manus, pietasque insigne avorum,''
:::''In superos templis testificata sacris.''
:::''Omnia de nobis praedantur fata: Tonanti''
:::''Quas damus, has solas semper habemus opes.''<ref>Altmeyer (1840), pp. 59-60</ref>

The Flemish poet Gislain de Coninck, who was born in the town, translated the Latin poems of Charles Wynkius in ''Himni, Quorum Usus Est In Ecclesiastico Dei Cultu'', and the two were published together in 1573.<ref>Ferdinand François, E. van der Haeghen, ''Bibliographie Gantonoise'', Ghent 1858,
[https://books.google.com/books?id=ghICAAAAQAAJ&dq=Poperinghe+poeme&pg=PA200 pp199-200]</ref> Then in the following century there were two more Latin poets from the town, Joannes Bartholomaeus Roens and Petrus Wenis (1648-1726).<ref>Tom Deneire, "The Latin Works of Two Poets from Poperinge: Joannes Bartholomaeus Roens and Petrus Wenis", in ''Syntagmatia: Essays on NeoLatin Literature in Honour of [[Monique Mund-Dopchie]] and Gilbert Tournoy'', Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 26, Leuven University Press, 2006, (pp. 709-721).</ref> Wenis published ''Gheestelycken nachtegael'' (The Spiritual Nightingale, 1698) on the miracle that restored a still-born child to life in 1479, an event associated with the statue of Our Lady in Sint-Janskerk that is still celebrated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mariaommegang.be/item.php?lang=EN&itemno=4|title=Background details|website=Mariaommegang.be|access-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402125011/http://www.mariaommegang.be/item.php?lang=EN&itemno=4|archive-date=2 April 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In modern times, the town was referred to in one of the epigrams in [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s ''Amœnitates Belgicæ''. In “Une Béotie belge” the sophisticated French-speakers of Brussels look down on the rustic Poperinghe of their Flemish compatriots.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Une_B%C3%A9otie_belge|title=Une Béotie belge - Wikisource|website=Fr.wikisource.org|access-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> In the following century, the town is the subject of the imagist night piece "Poperinghe 1917" by the Canadian poet [[W. W. E. Ross]].<ref>Brian Douglas Tennyson, ''The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs'', The Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 345, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rJHBELr463MC&dq=Ross+%22Poperinghe+1917%22&pg=PA345 note 1544]</ref>

==Notable people==
*[[Dirk Frimout]] (born 1941), Belgium's first astronaut; the town park is named after him
*[[Anne Provoost]] (born 1964), Flemish novelist

==Twin towns – sister cities==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Belgium}}
Poperinge is [[Sister city|twinned]] with:<ref>{{cite web |title=Jumelages|url=https://www.poperinge.be/jumelages|publisher=Poperinge|language=nl|access-date=2023-10-17}}</ref>
*{{flagicon|GER}} [[Frielendorf]], Germany
*{{flagicon|ENG}} [[Hythe, Kent|Hythe]], England, United Kingdom
*{{flagicon|BEL}} [[Rixensart]], Belgium
*{{flagicon|GER}} [[Wolnzach]], Germany
*{{flagicon|CZE}} [[Žatec]], Czech Republic

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="130px">
File:Poperinge - City Hall 2.jpg|Poperinge Town Hall in 2007
File:Poperinge-Sint-Bertinuskerk 3.jpg|Sint Bertinuskerk, the oldest church in Poperinge
File:Poperinge - Sint-Janskerk.jpg|Sint Janskerk, the site of the mediaeval miracle
File:Poperinge - Keikop 1.jpg|The keikop monument to the obstinacy of the citizens
File:Hopmuseum Poperinge 1.jpg|An old warehouse at the hop museum
File:Poperinge war memorial.jpg|War memorial
</gallery>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.poperinge.be Official website] - Information available in [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and limited information available in [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]] and [[German language|German]]
*Altmeyer, Jean-Jacques, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jhg_AAAAcAAJ&q=Poperinghe ''Notice historique sur la ville de Poperinghe'', Ghent 1840]

{{Geographic location
|Centre = Poperinge
|North     = [[Alveringem]], [[Vleteren]]
|East      = [[Ypres]]
|Southeast = [[Heuvelland]]
|South     = [[Godewaersvelde]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]]), [[Boeschepe]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]])
|West      = [[Houtkerque]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]])<br>[[Winnezeele]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]])<br>[[Steenvoorde]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]])
|Northwest = [[Bambecque]] ([[France|FR]]-[[Nord (French department)|59]])
}}
{{Municipalities in West Flanders}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Poperinge| ]]
[[Category:Municipalities of West Flanders]]