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Ypres, the city of cats

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Ypres, the city of cats

Ypres and cats have been linked for centuries. Today, everyone is familiar with the Cat Parade, which winds its way through the city’s streets every three years. But the origins of this tradition go back much further. As early as the Middle Ages, cats played a prominent role in city life.

Cats from the tower

The earliest known record of the Ypres cat-throwing tradition dates back to the early fifteenth century. In a set of town accounts from 1410–1420, a clerk notes an expenditure ‘when the cat was thrown’. By this he refers to an annual ritual in which several cats were thrown from the Belfry during the annual fair.

De oudste afbeelding van het Belfort met Lakenhal en helemaal rechts het Gulden Halleke, 1383 [1863] (SM 002001)

We are not sure why the people of Ypres throw cats from the tower. However, the custom does form part of a wider European tradition in which cats are the scapegoats. In Paris, they burn the animals alive on 24 June to mark the start of the festivities for St John the Baptist, and in Wervik there is the ‘Kattenknippeling’, where cats are hung in jars from a tree and the jars are smashed.

There is probably a link to the cat’s bad reputation. In the Middle Ages, cats were regularly associated with witches, devils and other evil forces. So by driving the cat away, you also drive away evil. In Ypres, the ‘cat-throwing’ ceremony coincides with the main annual fair. Traders from all over Europe gather there to view fabrics, do business and make new contacts. Driving away the cat – and, symbolically, evil along with it is perhaps intended to ensure a successful fair and a prosperous year.

Cloth merchants in the cloth halls of Ypres, 20th century (OM 000375)

A tradition that lives on

Although similar rituals are disappearing in many places, the custom in Ypres has persisted for a remarkably long time. During the period of the Revolt at the end of the sixteenth century, the Protestants abolished the custom. And in the eighteenth century, too, the people of Ypres stopped throwing cats, probably under pressure from the Dutch troops. Yet it always resurfaced as soon as circumstances allowed, much to the delight of the people of Ypres. For them, it was always a celebration right up until 1817. That year, the last living cat fell onto Ypres’s Grote Markt.

Jozef Quisthoudt, The giant Goliath with dancing children in front of the Ypres belfry, 1939 (SM 002170)

From cat-throwing to a cat parade

After the First World War, the town revived the tradition of cat-throwing. Fortunately, with soft toy cats. In 1938, black velvet cats were thrown from the tower. This was preceded by a parade, a marching band, the town’s giant Goliath and the Ypres jester. The initiative was intended to restore the people’s spirits following the devastation of the First World War. The little cat parade was born.

After the Second World War, this small event grew into a large parade: the Cat Parade. The aim of the new parade was to turn the town into a tourist attraction. In 1955, the first parade wound its way through the town’s streets. Alongside Goliath, the new giant Cieper – a black tomcat – also took part. And the devil, Pietje Pek, was a must-have too. The parade is followed by the burning of the witches on the Grote Markt. The event culminates with the Ypres jester throwing velvet cats from the Belfry tower into the crowd.

Reus Cieper as a porcelain souvenir (SM 004896)
Bicycle flag featuring the cat and the Ypres jester, 20th century (SM 004902)

It was not until the twentieth century, therefore, that the (black) cat emerged as the unofficial symbol of the city of Ypres. The animal features on posters, cycle flags, signs, promotional gifts, coasters, bags, tiles, stamps and so on. The cat is often accompanied by the jester, dressed in the city’s red and white colours. It is, in fact, the jester who throws the cats from the tower in the current Cat Parade. One of the gilded statues atop the Cloth Hall depicts the jester standing ready to throw the cat. Since 2021, three cats have been adorning the Belfry Tower as corbels. A restoration of the animal’s honour in the ‘City of Cats’.

Then and now

IFFF005822:The Giants of Ypres in the Cat Parade, 1976 
IFFF005824: The Cat Parade, 1981
© Dennis Neumann - The Cat Parade, Ypres, 2024
© Dennis Neumann - The Cat Parade, Ypres, 2024