Ostend

Ostend or Oostende, town in north-west Belgium, in West Flanders Province, on the North Sea near Bruges. Ostend is a leading Belgian port, with important fishing and shipbuilding industries.

Ostend, now a popular seaside resort, was founded as a fishing village in the 9th century. A wall was built around it in 1445, and it was fortified by Prince William I of Orange in 1583. Ostend was the last Dutch stronghold in Belgium. Between 1601 and 1604 the town heroically resisted a Spanish siege, in which 40,000 Spanish were killed, and the Flemish surrendered only after the town had been reduced to ruins. The Ostend Manifesto, a declaration by American ministers in favour of the annexation of Cuba, was drawn up here in 1854. During World War II the Germans used the town as an important submarine base until the British sealed the harbour by sinking a ship at its entrance. Population 69,115 (2007 estimate).