Brugge, Belgium

        On the train from Brussels to Brugge, a woman sitting across from us remarked that “Brugge is a dead city.” She went on to explain it was only a shrine to the past for tourists and had no life of its own.  We had a momentary fear that we were on our way to a European Busch Gardens—had the town we so loved about thirty-five years ago lost its soul and vitality?  Upon arriving, we took a bus across town to the house where we were staying--while we recognized some of the “sights,” we were more struck by the energy of the people riding the bus with us. If the town was dead, it wasn’t populated by zombies. This sense that the people of Brugge were alive and vital was repeated when we met our host Sophie and was reinforced countless times as we met people over the next few days (especially a very gracious woman when I dumped a chocolate display onto the floor of her shop).

          On the other hand, the town at times felt like it had more tourists than citizens, as every corner seemed to be a wonderful photo op populated with someone trying to read the town map or project a selfie stick. I easily snapped more pictures over this visit that any other three-day span. It’s not just the Markt and Burg, the two main squares about a block apart from each other, it is all the beautiful lanes, canals, churches, and homes at each turn of the corner. So much of this city's great medieval past has survived.

        I will admit the Markt had a slight Disneyland feel despite the buildings being almost 300 years old. Two sides of the square are shops and cafes that we were consistently told to avoid, though the buildings were still historical and charming. A third side, once the Provincial Court, had the “Historium” movie and a faux brewery. On the south side, The Belfort, built in the 13^th Century, rises not only above the square but much of the town (we passed on the opportunity to climb 366 steps to see the view from the tower).  In the middle of the square, a statue honors town heroes Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninc, though it is hard to see midst the horse-drawn carriages, tour buses, and Segues waiting for tourists. In one sense, the place is still pretty much a market.

 

Markt square

Belfort

        The Burg, however, still had some gravitas with the Basilica of Holy Blood dominating the square. The Basilica has a fine neo-Gothic upper church, but the real treasure is a small Romanesque lower church. Next to it are the gothic Town Hall (Stadhuis) and the Palace of the Liberty, all still working buildings though open to tourists.  The cobble-stoned square is smaller and quieter.

Burg square

stadhuis and basilica

 

Brugge is marketed as the “Venice of the North,” a mixed blessing, given that the Italian city is sinking literally and figuratively. The canals are picturesque and plentiful, and it is not hard to imagine them as the trade routes in town and to the sea. At the end of one is where shipping arrived and a man-powered crane operated. Now it is replaced by a welcoming statue of Jan Van Eyck (essentially the patron painter of Brugge), the toll house for taxes on the imported goods, and a 15th-century Burgher’s Lodge, a former meeting place of well-to-do Brugge's burghers and foreign merchants.

         Architecture dominates Brugge. But the art is impressive as well, though not on the same scale.  We visited only a couple of museums, notably the Groeninge Museum, which houses some prize Flemish primitives, including works by Van Eyck, Memling, and Claesens. Included in the price of admission was the Arentshuis next door, which housed work by Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956), a prolific, British artist born in Bruges. The exhibit was one of those wonderful surprises; he worked in a range of media (mostly engravings and paintings), designed furniture, tapestries and rugs, as well as murals such as those at the Rockefeller Center in NYC. 

 

After that we found the Church of our Lady in order to view Michaelangelo’s Madonna and Child (we looked for it the previous day, but ended in another church). After deciding two other statues of mother and child in the church couldn’t be Michelangelo’s, we found the real thing (what fine critical eyes we are developing).

Art and architecture even dominated our housing: Our hosts are an architect and the director of the Academie of Art (Filip) and a painter (Sophie). They have restored a 1775 house along a canal (we were staying in their second house next door). Brugge is a world heritage site, so there are strict rules about modifying the facade of buildings. The insides, however,  are completely redone in a modern minimalist design and filled with paintings and sculpture by them and their friends. On Saturday before we left, we stopped by the Acadamie, and witnessed scores of young children pouring out of the building carrying various pieces of art they had created. The arts continue to live and thrive in Brugge.

         Of course, Brugge is also noted for its chocolates, beer, and linen (further expressions of artistic sensibility?). We spent a good deal of time sampling two of the three. I was amused the first time I saw a chocolate shop next to a beer store, thinking isn’t this special and a great photo, but by the time I’d snapped about the tenth such pairing as we wandered the streets, I realized it wasn’t so special (though still amusing).  I suppose you want the story I mentioned above about my spilling chocolate—not gonna do it.

chocolate shop, beer store, chocolate shop--heaven on earth?

      There are many more places in Brugge worth writing about—and photos—but frankly I’m running out of time before our next adventure. Take a look at one of the online photos sites to see more Brugge beauty.

       As we rode the Eurostar, back to England, the world power 100 years ago, after visiting a world power of about 300 years ago, I mused about the passing of time (one of the themes of Flemish paintings) and how these places, while moving off center stage, preserved their past and remained creative. Maybe a good lesson for the U.S. in the coming century.