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A colorful past as an ancient gateway to trade makes this Belgian city a treasure whether you call it Brugge (Flemish) or Bruges (French).
By ROBERT N. JENKINS
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2001
BRUGGE, Belgium -- Amid the cigarette smoke, diesel fumes and trinket shops that define too many of Europe's tourist destinations, there is the occasional urban treasure. There is a Brugge.
It is not undiscovered: About 3-million tourists visited last year. But two-thirds of them were day trippers, and when they are not here -- or when you go where their tour buses never venture -- this walkable city is simply charming.
Two grand squares present an image of medieval times, when Brugge (BRUG-guh) was a gateway to trade on the North Sea and therefore one of the richest cities on the continent. The larger of the two squares, the Markt, was the center of commerce and is bordered on two sides by enormous buildings, one dating to 1282. The other square, the Burg, is equally old and is still the administrative heart of the city.
Visitors wander about these plazas and duck into the lace shops that line the tiny street linking the squares. But it is away from here that Brugge comes alive, showing both ancient and new faces.
Twisting lanes lead past facades of brown brick or pastel stucco. Steeples soar from seemingly every corner, and stair-stepped gables make spikey skylines. Wrought-iron balconies vie for attention with the blooms of flower boxes set in front of tall, rectangular windows.
Statues of saints hold forth a story or two above the street, on the corners of buildings; Madonnas show off the infant Jesus to those passing below.
The city is dotted with parks and green, green courtyards. Alleys of paving stones lead from old buildings here to older buildings there.
Canals almost ring the city and send tributaries into some neighborhoods. Brugge is compact: Within the canal-enclosed 2.5 square miles, fewer than 50,000 people reside.
On Brugge's narrow streets, the bicycle is king. Elderly women in fur hats pedal about, headed to or from the store and boldly claiming a couple of feet of roadway from the taxis and trucks.
Working to a job description that includes elf and historian, Andre De Nolf eagerly shares his hometown with strangers. This month De Nolf, 75, enters his fifth decade as a guide. As a concession to that milestone, he is cutting back on his schedule -- it will be something fewer than the 300 walking tours he led last year.
Taking note of the rare sunny day on this tour in early March, De Nolf offers a brief weather report: "When the angels are traveling, the skies are bright."
Then off steps the diminutive man who secretly taught himself English from an old textbook in 1943, when the Germans occupying Belgium had forbidden teaching the language.
Like most Belgians, De Nolf can speak at least three languages, with varying degrees of fluency. It is a result of history:
Following a brief revolt in 1830, Belgium was carved from the Netherlands into a separate nation. The small country (at 10.1-million, it presently has about two-thirds the population of Florida) served as a wedge between the powerful Dutch and their enemies, the equally powerful French.
Consequently, residents in the north region of Belgium, called Flanders, speak Flemish, a form of Dutch. Residents in the southern area, known as Wallonia, speak French. German is the language of choice in a small eastern region. And English is widely understood -- and spoken with a variety of accents.
In English, De Nolf tells his customers this day that Brugge is the Dutch name for the city; in French, it is the smoother-sounding Bruges (BROO-zh). He also tells the group gathered for this mobile history lesson that Brugge is just 10 miles from the Dutch border, and thus Flemish is the preferred language here.
Brugge is also just 7 miles from the North Sea, he adds, which was the source of its immense prosperity six centuries ago -- and ultimately the reason so much of Brugge still resembles that era.
"The Vikings came before there was a town here," De Nolf says. "Brugge in Danish means "small landing space,' " for the inland place was on a natural waterway, the Zwin, leading to the sea.
"The first fortress was built here in 864," and as the community grew around the fort, it became a major trading center. "Italians brought wine, the English brought wool to be woven into cloth here, the French came." The Spanish and Portuguese, too.
Brugge in the 14th century was a member of the Hanseatic League, a powerful consortium of international trading cities. By 1500, Brugge was the headquarters of the league and had about 200,000 residents -- twice the size of London.
But by then, the Zwin had begun to silt up, De Nolf recounted. Larger ships, which promised more profit for the merchants living here, could no longer reach the harbor. Within decades, no ship could navigate the channel. Brugge was landlocked.
With that, the merchants left, and city-states such as Venice and Florence closed their trading houses. "They had moved to (the port city of) Antwerp," the guide continued, and so did the commoners who depended on the sea trade for their livelihood.
"Brugge fell asleep for more than three centuries."
With no strategic value, the city pretty much escaped damage during the two World Wars; residents could hear German bombers on their way to clobber Rotterdam, to the north.
During the 19th century, Brugge was being discovered by tourists impressed with its medieval structures. By the 1950s, modern industry was taking hold, and tourism was becoming more popular, still due to the preserved nature of the place.
What they still find are some amazing ancient buildings, some interesting museums and the soothingly placid canals flowing by both old and new Brugge.
De Nolf likes to position his group in the midst of the historic Burg square, which may be unique as a contiguous exhibit of European architecture. As he slowly turns, he directs the visitors' gazes in this direction, then that one.
"See the Romanesque style of the Basilica of the Holy Blood (part of which dates to the 12th century), and see that it adjoins the French Gothic Town Hall," the oldest in Belgium, finished in 1420.
"Then there is the Italian Renaissance Hall of Justice . . . see the step gables, a device of the ancient Spanish architects when Spain ruled the Netherlands.
"Here is Flemish Baroque in the 17th century building occupied by the church provost. Next we see French Classicism, dating from the 18th century.
"And there, that building has a 20th century interpretation of ancient styles, so that it blends in."
To maintain the general antiquity of the city, Brugge has no buildings constructed near the medieval heart that are taller than three stories. The only traffic lights are on the ring road that borders the outer canal.
De Nolf's tour passes by two formidable museums. One is the Groeningemuseum, which holds a fine collection of art dating to the 14th century. Before the Renaissance, Flemish primitive painters such as Jan van Eyck (rhymes with cake) were developing extraordinary techniques of realism -- in faces, in the drape of fabrics, in reflected light. These artists changed the rules about not using human models or portraying real landscapes, and this museum displays roomsful of their works.
The other splendid collection is in the sprawling Gruuthusemuseum, a 15th-century mansion financed by merchants grown rich from selling mixtures of herbs and spices (called gruut) used in brewing beer.
Where the first museum is dedicated to art, this one fills 22 rooms with the stuff of everyday life, from the 15th century on. Up spiral staircases and down narrow halls, rooms showcase a spinet, tables and chairs here, a four-chambered trumpet case there, and the restored, completely furnished kitchen that served the mansion.
One special room is the oratory, providing the occupants their private viewing room onto the sanctuary of the adjacent Church of Our Lady. The oratory was built 20 years before Columbus left Genoa on his failed trip to find India.
It is at this church that De Nolf ends his tour, for it holds an item matched in few places in the world.
In 1504, Michelangelo carved a piece of marble into a Madonna and Child, "commissioned by a family in Sienna, Italy," De Nolf explains in a voice hushed so as not to draw a reprimand from the stern-looking matron nearby. "But it was bought instead by a Brugge man who offered twice as much to Michelangelo." The city's wealth was put into play.
"Four days before the Canadians arrived to liberate Brugge in World War II," De Nolf continues, "the statue was taken away by German soldiers. It was recovered by Americans" later and returned the church in Brugge.
A treasure within a treasure. We have come full circle.
GETTING THERE: There are no direct flights from Florida to Belgium, but several carriers fly to London, where a connection can be made to the capital, Brussels. Sabena, the fine Belgian airline, flies direct to Brussels from Washington's Dulles Airport, and US Airways this month began daily service between Philadelphia and Brussels.
An option if flying from London: The high-speed Eurostar train will get you to Brussels in two hours, 40 minutes, downtown to downtown.
Summer discounts on Eurostar are in effect for bookings made by June 30, for travel from June 1 to July 31. First-class, one-way fare is $159, compared to the usual $219. Standard class fare is just $89 one way, instead of $139. Unlike on airplanes, there is little step-down in quality on Europe's high-speed trains between first and standard class.
For more information, contact Rail Europe toll-free at 1-888-382-7245, or go to the Web site http://www.raileurope.com, or contact a travel agent.
But if you do fly, from the Brussels airport you can take a cab or a train (about $2.15) to the city's train stations for the hourlong $9 ride to Brugge.
Belgian trains are punctual and clean. Depending on the age of the rolling stock, the conductor's public address announcements may be crisp or blurred. What they will not be is in English; upcoming stations are announced only in Dutch and French, so it is wise to check the timetable to count the number of stations before your destination.
Brugge is wonderfully walkable, though the age of its streets and most-interesting buildings means those with mobility problems might be challenged. Contact your hotel or the city tourist office (address below) for guidance on specific sites.
STAYING THERE: I stayed at a marvelous boutique hotel, the Romantik Pandhotel, operated by the Vanhaecke family. The 18th-century mansion could not be in a better location, less than a 10-minute walk to Burg square and Markt square, maybe 15 minutes to the major museums.
Each of the 23 rooms' decor is elegant and different; four-poster beds are common in the suites.
Rates through next March begin at about $101 for one person in a standard room ($124 for two people), $124 for one person in a superior and $181 in a junior suite. Rates include a cooked-to-order breakfast and the 16-percent value-added tax, a type of national sales tax common throughout Europe.
Cheaper rooms are available at other hotels offering local flavor, as well in such chains as Sofitel and Holiday Inn. Bookings can be made through the city's tourist office.
ROAMING THE CITY: Brugge, with Salamanca, Spain, has been anointed by Europe's ministers of culture a Cultural Capital for 2002. This will undoubtedly increase the throngs of tourists.
As guide Andre De Nolf notes, the buses carrying loads of tourists do not arrive early -- "The town is ours until 10 o'clock!" -- and they leave in the afternoon, so the best times are the early morning and the evening, when lights add a majesty to the grandest buildings.
De Nolf can be reached by calling 011 32 050 33 71 70, fax 011 32 050 34 79 69, or write to him at Vuldersstraat 84, B-8000 Brugge, Belgium. Typical price per person for group walking tours is about $34 for two hours; the anecdotes and history are worth that. And you can learn the city's highlights, then return to them at your own pace.
For the more independent traveler, the city tourist office rents a recorded Walkman tour for less than $6, for the day. That office also organizes themed walking tours.
Several companies offer canal-boat narrated tours, but before you buy a ticket, be sure your boatman speaks English clearly enough for you to understand. Half-hour horse-drawn carriage rides run about $22.50 for a load of five.
Finally, a company named Quasimodo operates three-hour bicycle tours of the city, with narration in English. The cost is about $14.50 for those 26 and older, about $12.50 for those younger than 26. Contact the company at 011 32 05 037 04 70, fax 011 32 05 037 49 60; the Web site is http://www.quasimodo.be. EATING THERE: A confession: I do not eat eels, rabbits or mussels, all of which are staples of the Belgian diet. I do, however, love beer, and Belgium boasts about 110 breweries turning out an estimated 700 beers. As a matter of fact, a Haagen-Dasz store I passed featured nine beers in its window.
Here is an abbreviated list of recommended Brugge restaurants:
Den Dyver, famous for cooking with beer.
Die Swaene, an elegant restaurant.
De Karmeliat, three Michelin stars.
De Visscherie, for seafood -- a constant in Belgium.
Straffe Hendrik, which means Strong Henry, the name of a brewery-restaurant and its prime product.
't Brugs Beertje, a small, friendly pub offering more than 300 beers.
SHOPPING TIPS: Confession No. 2: I collect beer glasses that have the name of foreign beers on them. Belgium knew I was coming and stocked beverage stores with dozens of "branded" glasses, but at relatively high prices.
For instance, one store was selling a package of two bottles of Blondeel Blond beer and a labeled glass for about $8.90, or the glass alone for $2.80. I bought the same package in the gift shop of the Gruuthusemuseum for $4.05.
Creation of Belgian lace, an industry begun partly to replace revenues lost when the shipping commerce disappeared, is now practiced largely by young girls and elderly women.
You can buy everything in lace from tiny handkerchiefs to immense tablecloths, but do ask the salesclerk if the item was made in Belgium or imported from Asia. If the answer is not given courteously, head for the next lace shop, which is probably next door. Clerks should also tell you about the amount of handwork on a given piece that may have been sewn onto a machine-produced body.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: One of the best guidebooks I have ever used is the Cadogan Brussels/Bruges book, by Anthony Mason, a Londoner married to a Belgian. This book is authoritative but conversational, filled with easily consumed history and pointers. It also has indispensable walking tours themed to various interests in Brussels. Distributed in North America by Globe Pequot Press, the book retails for $17.95.
A good cross-reference book is Insight Guide Belgium, a weighty paperback filled with luscious photos and insider tips tucked here and there. Published by Insight Guides, $22.95.
The Brugge tourist office can be contacted by e-mail at toerisme@brugge.be; the Web site is http://www.brugge.be; or call 011 32 050 44 86 86.
The Belgian National Tourist Office is at 780 Third Ave., Suite 1501, New York, NY 10017; call (212) 758-8130; the Web site is http://www.visitbelgium.com.