[citation needed] Stone Age artefacts, flint axes and spearheads, were found in the district of Bas-Flanders and the site Oosthove.

The archeological excavations at de Pioneer in 2009 yielded traces of inhabitation from the Iron Age to the Roman Period.

Wervik was probably a settlement of the Menapians led by the chief Virovos, at a small height along the banks of the Lys (current Island Balokken).

In the 13th century the population of Belgium rose sharply, thanks to the great heyday of the textile trade which penetrated international markets up to the Far East.

During the Ghent uprising of 1382, Wervik was an outpost of the army of Philip van Artevelde during the Battle of Westrozebeke.

Jan Zonder Vrees gave Wervik a market hall in 1401, as an incentive for recovery and revival.

During the religious quarrels, the Saint Medardus church was badly damaged and today still bears the traces of the iconoclastic.

In the 17th century the entire region was affected by the ongoing annexation attempts of the French king Louis XIV.

During the War of the First Coalition the battle of Wervik and Menin partly took place here between the Dutch and French revolutionary armies, during which the young Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau was wounded.

Wervik became part of the French département of Lys, and entered a period of terror, coercion and persecution.

The Bruges architect Huib Hoste carried out several projects, including several rows of houses, commercial buildings and the town sewers.

During the Second World War Wervik was again occupied by German troops, until the inhabitants were freed in 1944 by Canadian soldiers.