What to See in Bruges - Top Sights and Attractions

Church and pilgrimage site with holy relic. The Basilica of the Holy Blood is a Roman Catholic basilica in Bruges, Belgium. The church houses a relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders. Built between 1134 and 1157 as the chapel of the Count of Flanders, it was promoted to a minor basilica in 1923.

The basilica in Burg square consists of a lower and upper chapel. The lower chapel, dedicated to St. Basil the Great, is a dark Romanesque structure that remains virtually unchanged. The venerated Passion relic is in the upper chapel, which was rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 16th century and renovated in the 19th century in Gothic Revival style.^[2]

Spire-topped church and Michelangelo art. The Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium, dates mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. This church is essentially "...a monument to the wealth, sophistication, taste, and devotion of this most Catholic city, whose history and faith stand today celebrated in this wonderful building."

Its tower, at 115.6 metres (379 ft) in height, remains the tallest structure in the city and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world (after St. Mary's Church in Lübeck and St. Martin's Church in Landshut, both in Germany).

The church demonstrates the Gothic style in the prominent Flying buttresses on the exterior which were constructed in the 1270s and 80s. The nave contains cross-vaults and black and white tiled flooring. The interior demonstrates the heavily ornamented Baroque style in the side aisles and chancel. One of the chapels in the church was created in 1482 for a wealthy man named Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, as his personal worship area.^[4]

Multi-purpose stadium in Bruges, Belgium. Jan Breydel Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Sint-Andries, Bruges, Belgium. The city-owned stadium is the home stadium of two top-flight association football clubs, Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge. It is used mainly for football matches, which cost between €5 and €60/seat/match. The stadium was built in 1975. It currently has 29,042 seats. It is named after Jan Breydel, an instigator of the Bruges Matins, the insurgency that led to the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Prior to 1999 and the Euro 2000 Championship the stadium was known as Olympiastadion, the Olympic stadium in Dutch, and had 18,000 seats. During December 2015 the pitch was resurfaced with an Italian proprietary hybrid grass called Mixto.^[8]

Popular central plaza with dining. The Markt of Bruges is located in the heart of the city and covers an area of about 1 hectare. Some historical highlights around the square include the 12th-century belfry and the West Flanders Provincial Court (originally the Waterhall, which in 1787 was demolished and replaced by a classicist building that from 1850 served as provincial court and after a fire in 1878 was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in 1887. In the center of the market stands the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck.

In 1995 the market was completely renovated. Parking in the square was removed and the area became mostly traffic-free, thus being more celebration friendly. The renovated market was reopened in 1996 with a concert by Helmut Lotti.^[9]

City or town hall in Bruges, Belgium. The City Hall of Bruges, Belgium, is one of the oldest city halls in the entire Netherlands region. It is located on Burg Square, the area of the former fortified castle in the centre of Bruges.

After a fire in the city's Belfry in 1280 the old Ghyselhuus, which had already fallen into disuse as the jail of the count of Flanders, became the meeting place for the city council. In 1376 the Ghyselhuus was pulled down and replaced by a new purpose built council building. Count Louis laid the foundation stone. Responsibility for its construction was given Jan Roegiers, and the project was completed, eventually, in 1421. The City Hall is the earliest late Gothic monumental-style municipal council building in Flanders or Brabant: its flamboyant opulence testifies to the city's economic and political power at a time when the population of Bruges is believed to have reached more than 37,000, or even 45,000 people.

The pioneering stone facade of the oldest part, which during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was several times extended towards the south, inspired in quick succession the city halls of Brussels, Ghent, Leuven and Oudenaarde. The building's admirers highlight the effect of the "Brugian span", referring to the abundance of repeating systematically positioned niches encompassing the windows, though it is not clear that this effect was invented in Bruges.

The statues under the stone baldachin-canopies on the building's facade have been renewed several times. At the time of the French Revolution all the statues were destroyed. A small number of genuine pieces are now included in the collections of the city museum. The crenellated facade is topped off with little turrets and the roof is decorated with its own little crests and dormers. In 1766 the door on the left side of the building's facade was repositioned to make the overall effect more symmetrical.

Between 1895 and 1905 the distinguished local architect, Louis Delacenserie and the Gothic Revival champion Jean-Baptiste Bethune started the restoration of the interior. The lesser and greater council chamber were replaced by a single "Gothic Hall". The rich decoration of this chamber now offered competition to the elaborate exterior facade. The impressive double-vaulted timber ceiling was restored and extended to cover the entire area, while the vaulting over the two eastern bays dates only from the nineteenth century. Medallions in the bosses show New Testament scenes, prophets, evangelists and saints. Decoration of the corbels supporting the roof reflect natural and seasonal themes. On the walls mural paintings by Albrecht De Vriendt show scenes from the history of Bruges. Like the monumental mantle-pieces these are nineteenth-century neo-gothic enhancements. The stone vault from 1766 which had covered the lower level was at the same time replaced by a quasi-historical timber structure, supported by four columns that divide the room into two halves.^[14]

Cultural centre in Bruges, Belgium. The Concertgebouw is a cultural centre in Bruges, Belgium. Located at 't Zand, it was completed in 2002 when Bruges was European Capital of Culture, designed by Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem.

The building complex houses a large concert hall seating more than 1290 visitors on three levels and a chamber music hall seating 320. It features a café and room for exhibitions in the Lantaarntoren (Lantern Tower) which offers a view of the historic town.

The building rests on 4,669 poles. The interior is rather sober, and the halls offer excellent acoustics, thanks to advanced technology. The facades are covered with thousands of red terracotta tiles from Saint-Omer in northern France, while the Lantaarntoren is built mainly from glass.

Located close to the historic centre, the building has raises divided reactions: some like its contrasting looks, others think it does not match the architecture of the old town.^[15]

Museum in an 11th-century hospital. The Hospital of St. John was a medieval hospital in Bruges. It was founded in the mid-12th century.

Located next to the Church of Our Lady, the premises contain some of Europe's oldest surviving hospital buildings. The hospital grew during the Middle Ages and was a place where sick pilgrims and travellers were cared for. The site was later expanded with the building of a monastery and convent. In the 19th century, further construction led to a hospital with eight wards around a central building.

Not until 1977 did the building's function as a hospital stop, at which time it was moved to a newer modern hospital in Brugge Sint-Pieters. The city of Bruges took over the buildings. Today part of the hospital complex holds the popular Hans Memling museum, named for the German-born Early Netherlandish painter, where a number of works, such as triptychs are displayed, as well as hospital records, medical instruments and other works of art.

The hospital site is also used as a congress and exhibition centre, the site Oud Sint-Jan.^[22]