The Belgian military cemetery at Oeren is the final resting place of 642 Belgian soldiers. The cemetery was laid out during the war around the late-Gothic church (16th century), built of yellow brick. The cemetery now contains only five memorial stones honouring the fallen, each featuring a Celtic cross, a seagull or ‘Bluefoot’, and the letters AVV VVK, designed by front-line soldier, painter and draughtsman Joe English.
There were once more of these gravestones in Oeren, but on the night of 9-10 February 1918, grave desecrators defaced 38 of them: the letters AVV VVK were smeared over with cement. The Flemish reacted promptly and, the following night, frontline soldiers painted over the covered-up letters with black paint. It was later agreed to meet every year ‘where popular Flemish war dead were buried’:
- 1920 – 1st Yser Pilgrimage - Tribute to Joe English - Steenkerke
- 1921 – 2nd Yser Pilgrimage - Tribute to the Van Raemdonck Brothers - Steenstrate
- 1922 – 3rd Yser Pilgrimage - Tribute to Renaat De Rudder - Westvleteren
- In 1923, the fourth Yser Pilgrimage took place here under the theme ‘Restoring honour to the desecrated graves’.
- From the following year onwards, all Yser Pilgrimages took place in Diksmuide.
The site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since September 2023.