Sint-Jacobskerk, Gothic church in Ypres, Belgium

Sint-Jacobskerk is a brick Gothic church in Ypres with a prominent bell tower rising above the city skyline. The building displays characteristic Gothic features throughout its structure and houses religious artwork within.

The parish altar was first mentioned in 1138, and a Romanesque church was built in the mid-12th century. In the 14th century it was replaced by a Gothic hall church, damaged in the 1383 siege of Ypres. The late Gothic west tower was built in 1634 but left unfinished for lack of funds. Secularised in 1798, the church was destroyed in World War I except for the 14th-century west portal and rebuilt in 1923–1926 under architect Jules Coomans.

Most of the church furniture was made in the art workshop of Maredsous Abbey. The statues date from the 17th and 18th centuries and the paintings from the 17th to the 20th, including Jan Cossiers' "The Adoration of the Shepherds" from around 1650. A statue of Saint James stands at the main entrance.

The church is only open during services, so plan a visit around the Mass timetable rather than daytime opening hours. It stands halfway between the Menin Gate and the Lille Gate, close to the Sint-Vincentiuscollege, and the surrounding Guido Gezelleplein has been a protected landscape since 1976.

The west tower was left unfinished in 1634 for lack of money, ending at gallery height with a short, blunt spire. A 1649 drawing by Sanderus shows it as a complete Brabantine tower with a polygonal lantern, a form it never actually had.