This month's World Heritage Site

BRUGES - Belgium’s Medieval Masterpiece

By Toni Dabbs

Mist adds a fairytale touch to the Minnewater, once the busy inner harbor of Bruges.  Photo by Toni Dabbs

Charming. The word might have been coined to describe Bruges, the former capital of Flanders that appears to be trapped in time, an almost perfectly preserved medieval city.

Bruges, which lies in the northwest corner of Belgium just 15 kilometers from the Netherlands border, is full of picturesque bridges, so visitors might assume that its name is derived from “brug,” the Dutch word for bridge. However, it comes from the Norse “bryggja,” meaning landing stage, because the city was a commercial port of call for Vikings trading along the North Sea coast.

Bruges itself is not on the coast but was linked to the North Sea by an inlet called the Zwin. Twelfth century Flemings established an inner harbor and dug canals connecting it to warehouses throughout the city.

During the Middle Ages, Bruges flourished. Around 1340, its population was equal to London’s... ironic, perhaps, since English woolens were becoming stiff competition for the Flemish cloth that was Bruges’s main commodity. By the 15th century, the city was forced to shift its economic base from trade to finance.

Then, for reasons still not fully understood, the Zwin began to fill with sand, barring the passage of ships and putting an end to the city’s prominence. Another Belgian city, Antwerp, took over as the financial center of the region, and Bruges came to a standstill.

Today, swans peacefully drift on what once was the busy harbor, the Minnewater. At its northern end, a three-arched bridge leads to the entrance of the Princely Beguinage of the Vine, founded in 1245. The beguinage was a cloistered community, where nuns and other pious women devoted their lives to prayer and cottage industries such as lacemaking and weaving.

Benedictine nuns still occupy the premises. Wearing puffy white wimples and long black vestments, holdovers from the 15th century, they seem to glide enigmatically around the grounds. A small museum gives visitors a glimpse inside one of the sparsely furnished white cottages where the nuns live.

On the other side of the bridge, a lane passes shops displaying the handmade lace that is a Bruges specialty. Historically, local women hemmed their skirts with lace to protect them from wear. A costumed lacemaker often is available to demonstrate the complicated technique, pins securing the pattern to a pillow, while bobbins dangling from a multitude of threads are crossed over, under and around one another to create the delicate designs.

A bishopric since 1559, Bruges is a city of churches. Some are of minor interest, such as the Church of Jerusalem (founded in 1428), modeled after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, while others have considerable significance.

The Princely Beguinage of the Vine provides a tranquil environment for Benedictine nuns. Photo by Toni Dabbs

The Church of the Holy Saviour, dating back to the 10th century, is the oldest parish church in the city and has been the cathedral since 1834. The Church of Our Lady, built between the 13th and 15th centuries, has accumulated many works of art, including a white marble “Madonna and Child” sculpted by Michelangelo.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood houses a reliquary bearing what are said to be a few drops of Christ’s blood, brought back from the Second Crusade by Thierry d’Alsace, Count of Flanders, in 1150. On Ascension Day each year, the shrine is carried through the streets of Bruges in a procession that features floats depicting Biblical events.

The basilica faces a small square, where several public buildings also stand. The Town Hall, circa 1376-1420, is an elegant Gothic structure. The gilded facade of the Old Recorder’s House, constructed from 1535 to 1537, now forms part of the Law Courts.

A block west is the larger market square, dominated by a 13th century market hall with an 83-meter-high octagonal belfry. A 49-bell carillon, installed in the tower in 1743, can be heard all over town whenever it is played. Visitors who climb the tower’s 366 steps can see the bells and get a bird’s-eye view of Bruges.

Back toward the former inner harbor, about midway between it and the market square, is St. John’s Hospital, which served as a health care facility from 1188 to 1976. The dispensary remains as a medical museum, and one ward has been converted to an art gallery showing paintings by Flemish master Hans Memling (circa 1413-1494), who lived and worked in Bruges.

Many of the city’s aging structures are made of brick rather than stone. The fashionable building material in medieval Bruges, brick was used for aesthetic as well as architectural purposes and was set in arches, crosses and other decorative patterns.

Walls of buildings bordering canals sometimes rise directly from the water, an arrangement that made it easier to load goods onto boats during the city’s trading heyday. Now, canal cruises give visitors waterside tours of the city, while cobbled streets landside beg to be explored on foot.

Bruges is a city to savor slowly. It makes a delightful daytrip from Brussels, but it is more deserving of an overnight stay.