Called The Venice of the North, Bruges is one of Belgium's crown jewels. In no other European city is the look and feel of medieval times as present as here in this city close to the North Sea

Bruges is unique. Suspended in time centuries ago due to misfortune which drove away its townsfolk, it is now one of western Europe’s most visited medieval cities. The Bruges facades of palaces and churches attest to the past splendor of the city and dreamily evoke a world long since gone. In medieval times, the sea flooded the area around present-day Bruges, carving out channels and waterways. As in other Flemish cities, textiles were Bruges’ ticket to prosperity. Connected to England’s wool industry, by the late 13th century, Bruges was a major centre in the cloth trade. In the 14th century, Bruges became a key member of the Hanseatic League of Seventeen Cities, a powerful association of northern European trading cities, and reached its economic peak. Prosperity continued under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy with Bruges doubling London’s population in 1500. Flemish art blossomed and the city’s artists – known as the Flemish Primitives – perfected paintings that are still vivid today. During the 15th century, the waterway linking Bruges to the sea silted up. Despite attempts to build another canal, the city’s economic lifeline was gone. When the headquarters of the Hanseatic League moved from Bruges to Antwerp at the end of the century, many merchants followed, leaving their trade and private houses and Bruges slept for 400 years.

The Beguinage in Bruges
A few steps from the Lac d’Amour, the Beguinage is one of the most romantic places in Bruges. Since 1998, it has been listed as a World Heritage Site by the Unesco. The small Nordic-style buildings with tiled roofs and paned windows surround a flower meadow dotted with poplars. The houses with their small gardens are between one and five hundred years old. Since the 13th century (1245) when it was founded by Margaret of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders, the Beguinage has been a place for prayers and a retreat for the Beguines , a catholic order of unmarried or widowed women. Many single woman joined forces for mutual support and set up religious communities which adhered to vows of obedience and chastity but not poverty, unlike nuns, moreover, they could at all times break their vows and leave the beguine community. The Beguines were often from wealthy families and devoted their time to caring for the elderly and sick , and to work . Their communities were independent and the women earned their living from making textiles and from benefactors who would pay the Beguines to pray for them.

As the start of the 20th century there were about 1000 Beguines in Belgium but the order has now virtually died out.

The Flemish Primitives
The period of the Flemish Primitives was one of Flanders’ most glorious artistic times. Artists were commissioned to record the lifestyles of the ruling class as well as religious works. These artworks greatly influenced the course of European art.

Jan van Eyck.
Arguably, the greatest of the early Flemish masters, Jan van Eyck lived and worked in Bruges from 1430 until his death eleven years later. He was a key figure in the development of oil painting, modulating its tones to create paintings of extraordinary clarity and realism. His most celebrated artwork is “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432)” painted for the cathedral in Ghent. In Bruges, the Groeninge Museum has gorgeous examples of his work in its permanent collection .

Rogier Van der Weyden
Succeeded Van Eyck as court painter to Philip the Good, Rogier Van der Weyden was also the official city painter for Brussels .He executed works for the Brussels Town Hall, unfortunately destroyed during the French bombardment of the Grand Place in 1695. One of his masterpieces, “The Descent of the Cross” now hangs in Madrid’s Museo del Prado but a few are on display in Bruges’ Groeninge Museum.

Hans Memling
Hans Memling is considered as one of the most important Flemish Primitives, although he was born in the German city of Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt. First established as a painter in Brussels, he’s mentioned for the first time in the city books of Bruges in 1465 . Memling was most probably influenced by the painting school of Cologne and by the painter Rogier van der Weyden. Like many other Flemish masters, Memling painted with glowing colors and fine craftsmanship. He is noted for the fine quality of the figures in his religious paintings, such as the central panel of the “Mystic Marriage of St Catherine”. Many of Memling's well-known religious works were painted for the Hospital St. John ( St Janhospitaal)in Bruges The very prestigious Memling Museum , housed in the recently restored chapel of the 12th-century St Janhospitaal, it’s home to a handful of masterpieces by Hans Memling plus many works by lesser-known painters of hat time

Gerard David
Born near Gouda, the Dutchman Gerard David moved to Bruges in his early 20s.Soon admitted into the local painters guild, he succeeded Memling as Bruges’ premier painter. Official commissions rained in on Gerard David, mostly for religious paintings, which he approached in a formal manner but with a fine eye for detail. He became the last great artist of this era as Bruges’ fortune waned and Antwerp, the great port city to the northeast, became the focus of Belgium’s next artistic period.