What if you returned to Belgium to savor the Bruges of the Bruges people? On the menu, among others, mills, cows, a haunted house, a fantastic relic, Burgundian souvenirs, venerable taverns, a beer pipeline and timeless strolls. An ideal mix for all those who like to be told stories about a good mousse and some busty Flemish dishes…

Whenever a train arrives in Bruges, the flickering suitcases on the old cobblestones reassure the merchants and worry the old inhabitants. Just like the horseshoes which used to signal the arrival of foreigners from all over Europe, trade in the richest city in Northern Europe …

600 years ago, the city had 45,000 to 50,000 inhabitants and lived to the rhythm of the arrival of boats. Eh yes! But the Zwin, the former arm of the North Sea and vital economic route, was already inexorably silting up and the people of Bruges, over the years, would depend more and more on their outer ports, Damme and Sluis.

In the early 16th century, foreigners had left Bruges and over 5 000 houses were empty. Already, say those who visit it in winter and roam the streets at night where the lights hardly shine behind windows waiting for tourists, most of the houses being transformed into guesthouses…

In the second half of the 19th century, writers and artists took English romantic passion for a city fallen dormant for four centuries, preserved from industrialization and the madness of men. Its magnificent buildings were judiciously restored during the Neo-Gothic wave that followed. Which earned him, for its historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But today, it is another fight that city officials are engaged in, to preserve their city, and to preserve its atmosphere and its mysteries.

The thrillers written since 1995 by Pieter Aspe, around Commissioner Van In, a cop with a bad temper, a Duvel drinker and a lover of women, is a good way to approach Bruges. The ideal complement to what you may have read in the Routard. We discover the back of the Bruges decor and we dream of going for a drink at Vlissinghe or L’Estaminet, hoping to meet them.

The current councilors have decided to continue the pedestrianization of old Bruges, and limit noise, nuisance. In Bruges, cars and coaches are plagues. A few minutes from a center teeming with life during the day, it is enough to cross a few bridges to discover the romantic and mystical facets of the Flemish soul.

Follow in the footsteps of the last two Grand Dukes of the West, discover the places where famous women lived like Marguerite Yourcenar, stroll along the canals north of the city, to a seminar behind which cows are grazing , pass the porch of the houses of the gods, take advantage of the visit of the last large craft brewery to sneak into beer bars where people speak mostly Flemish, lunch at Chez Marie or at De Bron, in the midst of regulars, we love…

600 years ago, Duke Jean-Sans-Peur was concealed on the Montereau bridge, between Dijon and Paris, in September 1419, by a supporter of the future king of France. His son Philippe-le-Bon was going to make Bruges, even more than Dijon, the artistic and political capital of a Great Burgundy with European dimensions. He continued the work of his grandfather, Philippe le Hardi, who had known how to sleep useful. In 1369, her marriage to the heiress of the county of Flanders, Marguerite de Maele, had opened a century of almost uninterrupted splendor.

In 1429, Philippe le Bon installed his court at the Prinsenhof (today a very chic hotel) and, when he married Isabelle de Portugal, gave sumptuous parties.

In 1468, the cutlery was put back on for the marriage of Charles the Bold and Marguerite of York. But the new (and last, by the way) Duke of Burgundy was hardly mourned by the Bruges people, who did not like him (too spendthrift!). His death in 1477, followed by that of his daughter, the sweet Marie, in 1482, marked the beginning of the end for Bruges.

More than the departure from the court of Burgundy, it was to see the Zwin bogged down and the merchant ships moving away which rightly worried the merchants of Bruges.

The Burgundian heritage was passed on to the Habsburgs through the marriage of Marie de Bourgogne, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, to Maximilian of Austria. Her sudden death, during a hunting accident, while she was pregnant, was a tragedy worthy of that of Lady Di in the eyes of the gazettes of the time.

In the Notre-Dame church, its mausoleum is of superb craftsmanship. That of his father Charles the Bold, melted 70 years later, shows in detail the contribution of the Renaissance. Charles V wanted to transfer the remains of his ancestor there, but many guides doubt the veracity of these remains.

The reopening in May 2019 of the neighboring Gruuthuse museum will allow you to visit the palace of Louis de Gruuthuse (Louis of Bruges), advisor to Charles the Bold, knight of the Golden Fleece, whose family owed his fortune to the gruut : a mixture dried flowers and plants that had to be added to the wheat and barley must to add flavor to the beer. At 16 years, hops unnecessary use made of gruut and Gruuthuse aménagèrent the old warehouses in stately homes.

In the museum, you can see the oratory which allowed the lords of Gruuthuse to follow mass without having to mix with the good people, as well as works of art, furniture and tapestries illustrating the splendor of Bruges from yesteryear.

North of the Markt of Bruges: haunted house, cows and tavern

The walk in the footsteps of the Dukes will take you from the Markt (the Grand Place) dominated by the Jan van Eyckplein belfry, the Burgundian Manhattan, where ships were moored and unloaded and where all languages ​​were already represented. You will pass the old Nuist Gods Huis, a house long haunted by the specter of a nun killed by a priest whose advances she had refused and who then committed suicide.

If the urge to flee takes you, rather than retracing your steps, continue towards Saint-Gilles, the artists’ district. Memling, the best paid painter of his time, van Eyck and others, less known than them, lived there or had their studio.

In Langerei, cross the first bridge and continue along the water to the major seminary, which hides, behind its walls, a meadow where cows graze (which does not surprise anyone here, there are many sheep in the Hof De Jonghe, a park further west).

A little further, the Notre-Dame de la Poterie hospital keeps, in its museum, a fascinating art collection acquired over the centuries. Once at the lock, return by the ramparts walk, a green belt punctuated with mills.

It’s time to take a break from the only windmill you can visit. De Windmolen is a tavern left in its own juice with its collection of coffee grinders, its tables made with the feet of old sewing machines, its pots, its mugs, and its elders who play while the tourists eat a dish which n alas nothing typical.

Bruges of the lost steps

The return to the historic center is made through peaceful streets. They sheltered a population which would have found themselves partly without a roof if the guilds, owners of empty grounds, were not concerned with the fate of these destitute. We owe them the construction of the Dieu houses, these small low houses, made of a single room, a single window and a skylight but having in the center of a water point, a vegetable garden and toilets. There are more than 250 in Bruges, spread over forty sites.

Eight ancient houses of God in a row house an interesting small museum of Popular Arts and Traditions. The large fenced garden provides an ideal setting for a restful stopover.

Sainte-Anne Church

The nearby lace center revives a local industry that barely managed to feed part of the population. Not far away, on the Stijn Streuvelsstraat at no 59, in private, the rafters of Sint Jorisgilde pursue another centuries-old tradition.

After having taken more than one look at the baroque interior of the Sainte-Anne church, and before crossing the bridge over the canal, do not miss one of our favorite addresses, home port of Van In: De Vlissinghe. Portraits of ancestors, paneling weathered by the smoke from pipes, worn wooden tables, old stove and good beer: the establishment has delighted many travelers since 1515.

The mystery of the bulb of the Holy Blood in Bruges

We often cite the detective series created by Pieter Aspe, but the wacky thriller Bons Baisers de Bruges (2007) by Martin McDonagh has done a lot to change the candy pink image of the city. Just like the film Monuments Men, shot in 2014, recalling the flight of Michelangelo’s “Madonna of Bruges” (the other attraction of Our Lady with the mausoleums) by German soldiers, in 1944.

There has not yet been a film to evoke one of the greatest mysteries of Bruges: the bulb of the Holy Blood which contains a few drops of the blood of Christ. This bulb is exposed in the upper chapel of the basilica which bears his name, on a table.

A relic venerated in Bruges since 12 es, whose story will remind some of the Grail chalice, wanted by the Knights of the Round Table. The relic, preserved in a crystal vial, was brought back by Baudoin IX after the pillage of Constantinople. Tradition reports that the blood liquefied every Friday, which multiplied the number of pilgrims.

Each year, on Ascension Thursday, the procession of the Holy Blood, following the bishop and the crossbowmen, brings together hundreds of pilgrims, not to mention tourists caught up in the atmosphere of a dramaturgy reminiscent of the great ” medieval mysteries.

Walk to the Beguinage of Bruges

Mandatory detour to the Groeninge Museum to admire Madonna with Canon Van der Paele, sublime composition on wood signed Jan van Eyck. And by the Saint-Jean hospital to discover Madonna and Child by Hans Memling. Two masterpieces that we can scrutinize closely, to try to discover the mysteries and the image that they send us of a whole era, before going down further south to discover an emblematic place classified as Heritage Unesco World: the Beguinage.

Beguinage of Bruges

The Beguine emerges at the end of winter, a certain sweetness of life. The lawns dotted with daffodils, the trotting of a Benedictine hurrying towards the chapel, the red and white strip of the houses hidden behind the wall of their garden, all this contributes to making the beguinage a place that we would like to see protected even more. of the madness of men.

At the exit, a small detour for the romantics by the Minnewater (Lake of Love) and for the thirsty by one of the hidden taverns of the district, even for the wiser by a somewhat secret place, like De Bron, on Katelijnestraat, where you have to show your white leg and reserve. A vegetarian canteen where you find yourself in the middle of Flemings accustomed to booking and having lunch while staying on their reserve. Ideal for changing shrimp croquettes and carbonades.

The largest beer pipeline in the world

A stone’s throw from the beguinage of Bruges, another out of date place is worth a visit, if you love beers as much as curiosities.

Dating from 1546, the family brewery De Halve Maan (La Demi-Lune) is the last that remains in the city center. You will appreciate all the more the visit of this old malt house if you come across a guide like Roland, someone who fell into hops from a very young age. So, throughout the visit, it is not only the little secrets of beer making that are revealed to you, but those of an entire city.

The storage, bottling and barrel filling activities have been transferred outside the city. To solve the problem of transporting beer in tanks, crucial in a city where the pedestrian is now king, the last owner created a pipeline between the brewery and the factory (3.2 km), which we guess from the terrace. An underground pipe of about twenty centimeters, in fact.

The visit ends with a tasting of the house lager, the Brugse Zot – offered with the ticket – at the 1900 tavern. If hunger keeps you going, settle for shrimp croquettes, and pick up a brown, this time, our favorite.

The road to Damme, ex-port of Bruges

The silting of the estuary of the Zwin Bruges threatened by the end of the 12th century. Damme was built to serve as an outer harbor from where goods were transhipped before arriving by a canal.

It remains one of the favorite bike rides of Bruges residents from the Dampoort, north of the city. For a visitor, difficult to get lost, just follow the Damse Vaart (the canal) for 5 km, it’s straight. A trip that gives an idea of ​​the flat country sung by Brel, which begins here.

Moreover, the tourist office offers a discovery tour of the polders and neighboring villages (12 km), following a city tour in the footsteps of Thyl Ulenspiegel (Thyl the Mischievous in VF), character rebellious fiction that has made generations of little Flemings dream.

Bruges town hall

To take stock of the importance of Damme in the past, you just have to climb to the top of the church tower and, at an altitude of 43 m, take in the surrounding landscape. We can clearly see the layout of the old fortifications, inside which an entire city was squeezed. A quarter of it remains. This is enough for the happiness of those who live here (there are more gentleman farmers than workers) or come to spend a weekend out of time with family.

To see: a museum-like church , which houses a number of religious objects, evocative tombstones and paintings, a town hall which hides, at its feet, the smallest antique book shop in Belgium (Damme has become the city of books), a few bistros to settle in before setting off on a stroll along the canal, on foot or by bike, to the windmill, open in fine weather.

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