Bruges City Guide

Market, Canals & Beguinage

A compact day through the picture-postcard old town: from the great Markt with the belfry via the Burg square with the Basilica of the Holy Blood and the quiet merchant square Jan van Eyckplein to the city's most famous canal view at Rozenhoedkaai. By boat along the canals, into the Groeningemuseum for the Flemish masters, to the Church of Our Lady with Michelangelo's Madonna, over the Bonifacius bridge to the quiet Beguinage and the Lake of Love, the Minnewater.

1. Market Square & Belfry – The walk begins on the Markt, Bruges' great main square, lined with a row of colourful gabled houses with steep crow-stepped gables. Above it all towers the belfry, the 83-metre medieval bell tower and the city's landmark. Climb the 366 narrow steps for the finest view over the red roofs, the towers and the canals - come early, there's little room at the top and tickets are timed.
2. Burg & Basilica of the Holy Blood – Right beside the Markt lies the Burg, Bruges' oldest square and once the city's centre of power. Around it cluster centuries of architecture: the richly decorated Gothic town hall, one of the oldest council chambers in the Low Countries, and the Basilica of the Holy Blood. In its upper chapel a relic said to hold the blood of Christ is kept, carried once a year through the city in a great procession.
3. Jan van Eyck Square – A short detour to the north leads to Jan van Eyckplein, a quiet old merchant square in the former trading quarter, where ships from all over Europe once moored. At its centre stands the statue of the painter Jan van Eyck, and pretty brick façades and the old toll house mirror in the canal water around. Here, away from the main flows, you feel the Bruges of the Hanseatic age - quiet and dignified.
4. Rozenhoedkaai – The Rozenhoedkaai, the Rosary Quay, offers Bruges' most famous view and is the city's most photographed subject. Where two canals meet, the narrow, gabled brick houses and the belfry behind mirror in the still water. It's loveliest early in the morning or at dusk, when the crowds are gone and the warm light sets the façades glowing in the canal.
5. Canal cruise – No trip to Bruges without a canal cruise: from the jetty near the Church of Our Lady the small open boats glide silently through the network of canals, under low stone bridges and past façades, hidden gardens and blossoming courtyards you never see from land. From the water the city shows its loveliest, most intimate side - come early, or the wait grows long.
6. Groeninge Museum – The Groeningemuseum holds one of the most important collections of Flemish painting. Its heart is the Flemish Primitives, the early-Renaissance masters who lived and worked in Bruges: Jan van Eyck with his incredible attention to detail, Hans Memling and Gerard David. In glowing colours and with almost photographic precision, a new art was born here. A compact but overwhelmingly rich museum. Closed Mondays.
7. Church of Our Lady – The Church of Our Lady has, at 115 metres, one of the tallest brick towers in the world. Its greatest treasure is a Madonna and Child of white marble by Michelangelo - the only one of his sculptures to leave Italy in his lifetime, acquired by a wealthy Bruges merchant. The graceful, inward-looking figure is a work of quiet greatness, surrounded by the splendid tombs of the Burgundian dukes.
8. St John's Hospital (Memling Museum) – Right across from the Church of Our Lady stands St John's Hospital, one of the oldest surviving hospital buildings in Europe: from the 12th century, nuns and monks cared for the sick and for pilgrims here. Its medieval wards, beneath open timber roofs, now house the Memling Museum with six masterpieces by Hans Memling, among them the exquisitely painted Shrine of St Ursula, plus a historic 17th-century pharmacy. A quiet, moving counterpoint to the bustle of the canals.
9. Bonifacius Bridge – Hidden behind the Church of Our Lady lies the Bonifacius bridge, a small, picturesque stone bridge over a still canal, wreathed in ivy and old brick walls. Though it isn't actually that old, it is reckoned one of the city's most romantic corners - a quiet, often overlooked spot where old façades, turrets and water compose a picture as if from another century.
10. Beguinage & Minnewater – To close, the city's quietest places. The Beguinage (Begijnhof), founded in 1245, is a walled green court surrounded by plain white cottages - once the home of the beguines, single pious women, today inhabited by Benedictine sisters. In spring a sea of daffodils covers the lawn. Right beside it lies the Minnewater, the Lake of Love: a calm pool with swans and an old bridge, a peaceful close near the station.