Tag: Flanders

Medieval Gothic Extravagance

The exterior of the Basilica of the Holy Blood, next to Bruges City Hall in Burg Square, does not really look much like a church from the outside. There were people, obviously of the tourist persuasion, walking up a few stairs and through an entrance way; I was curious and followed them in. Inside, I saw a sign identifying the place at the foot of more stairs. I headed up and eventually walked into the remarkable main chapel, the Gothic style of which is somewhat unlike anything I have seen in the many churches I have visited over the years. Apparently, the church is home to a relic of the Holy Blood that a couple of bozos brought back from the Holy Land at some point. Make whatever you want of that. The church was built in the 12th century.

City Hall, Burg Square, Bruges

Construction of the Gothic style (or to be more precise – the late Gothic monumental style) Bruges City Hall was begun in 1376 and completed in 1421. The building is still the seat of the city government today. Parts of the interior are open to the public, but regrettably I did not make time to go inside. There is only so much one can see during a three day visit.

Adjacent to City Hall in Burg Square there are bistros for beleaguered bureaucrats in need of sustenance of the solid or liquid variety.

Bruges: A City of Canals

Like Venice and Amsterdam, Bruges has canals that link the old parts of the city together. What role these canals played in the history and development of Bruges, I cannot say. The only activity I saw on the canals were the sightseeing boats that took visitors on water-level tours of the city.

A Walk Through Historic Bruges

On my first morning in Bruges, I set off at just past 7:00 am to walk to the center of the old city. I soon came upon the enormous 115.6m high tower of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady. Construction of the Gothic church began in the 13th century and was completed in the 15th century. The brickwork tower is the second highest such structure in Europe (or the third, depending on which source one chooses to believe). Whether second or third, the massive tower dominates its surroundings.

Bruges is a small Belgian city of about 120,000 people located on the North Sea in the northwest of the country near the Dutch border. The center of Bruges is part of a sizeable UNESCO World Heritage Site of some 430 hectares. My plan was to walk from my hotel near the southern end of the oval-shaped Site to the Markt or Market Square, about 1 kilometer away in the heart of historic old Bruges.

The Belfry of Bruges is the centerpiece of the Market Square. The tower, a mere 83 meters high was built in 1240, but has been damaged by fire and repaired several times since then.

I will have more about Bruges in the days to come.