Ports - Touristic Guide

 Ostend it is a commune of the Flanders, one of three political regions presents in Belgium, and it is found in the province of the west Flanders. The commune includes the true and actual town and three smaller town, annas subsequently to its foundation: Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde.
 The town counts 68.594 inhabitants (given updated to January 1 2005) for a total area of 37,72 km². The density of population is equal to 1818,32 inhabitants for km².
 Ostend it is a Belgian town of about 70.000 persons, the greater one of the Belgian coast. In ancient times it is not other that a small village of fishermen built on the eastern bank (in Dutch: oost-einde) of an island (called Testerep), mail between the North Sea and a coastal lake. Although small, the village earned the status of 'town' around 1265, when to the inhabitants was allowed to hold a moderate market.
 The main source of incomes was naturally the fishing. The coasts of the North Sea always it was enough unstable and in 1395 the inhabitants decided to build a news Ostende to the shoulders of large digg and distant from the threat of the sea.

 The strategic position on the North Sea it given a large advantage to Ostend, like port, but also has revealed source of problems. The town was often taken, destroyed and plundered from the armed conquerors.
 The Peperbusse, local name of the old bell tower of a church burnt.
 After this period Ostend it changed in a port of a certain importance. In 1722 the Dutch closed the entry of the port of Antwerp. Therefore, Ostend grew in importance because supplied an alternation access to the sea.
&Nbsp; in successive times the port of Ostenda continued to expand itself thanks to the enhancement of the harbor structure and of the connections with the inside. In 1838 venne built a railroad connection with Brussels. Ostenda divenne a port of I pass for England in 1846, when the first one I ferry sailed forDover.