Bruges - Hanseatic Bruges

In 1440 Pieter Bladelin, also a treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece, built himself a house in Naaldenstraat, which branches right off Sint-Jacobsstraat. In addition to its exceptionally picturesque courtyard, Hof Bladelin is distinguished by the portraits of subsequent owners embellishing the facade, among them Lorenzo di Medici who gave the house to his Bruges agent and banker Tommaso di Portinari.

The lovely domed chapel (1736-39) on the right-hand side of Carmersstraat belongs to the Engles Klooster, an English nunnery.

The Flemish poet Guido Gezelle was born in a house in Rolweg which runs citywards off Kruisvest. The house is now a museum.

Naaldenstraat terminates in Grauwwerkersstraat, at the east end of which stands the Huis ter Beurze, now a bank. In the 15th C. when the house was built it was common practice for merchants to do business in their lodgings. Many took rooms here in the home of the van der Beurze family, as a result of which the word "beurs" or "bourse" has found its way into numerous languages as the term for a commercial exchange.

The distinctive oriental-looking tower visible behind Sint-Annakerk belongs to the Late Gothic Jeruzalemkerk in Peperstraat. Dating from 1428 it was modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the builders, members of the Adorne family, having made a pilgrimage there. The church boasts very fine 15th-16th C. stained glass windows and a copy of Christ's tomb.

The 15th century "Jeruzalemgodshuizen" adjoining the church is now the Kantcentrum (Lace Center), a museum cum studio/workshop where the art of bobbin lace making is preserved and handed on. In the afternoons the skilled craftswomen and their young pupils can be watched at work.

The Natiehuis van Genua (1399-1441) opposite the Huis ter Beurze was where Bruges's Genoese merchants carried on their business.

Sint-Annakerk, a short way east of Jan van Eyckplein, was erected in 1624 in place of an earlier Gothic church demolished in 1561. The Baroque choir stalls, rood-screen and pulpit are notable for their unity of style.

Sint-Gilliskerk, a hall church (1275) across on the north side of the canal from Oosterlingenplein, has a number of excellent paintings. Hans Memling and Lanceloot Blondeel are among those buried in the churchyard.

The Sint-Sebastian Guild of Archers, which counted English royalty among its members, used to meet in the delightful turreted house (1562) in the Carmersstraat. Inside the house the history of the guild and its illustrious membership is documented and there are displays of weaponry and gold and silver work.

In the opposite direction from Sint-Gilliskerk, a little to the south of the Spiegelrei, stands the magnificent Baroque church of Sint-Walburga (1619-42). Built by Pieter Huyssens, a Jesuit from Bruges, its furnishings include a superb pulpit by Artus Quellin the Younger and a similarly fine marble communion rail.

The guild-house of the Sint-Joris Guild of Archers opposite the first windmill on Kruisvest contains a collection of crossbows, paintings and documents.

The Stedelijk Museum voor Volkskunde occupies a group of 17th C. houses opposite the Kantcentrum. It comprises a collection of West Flemish folk art, costumes and items of an everyday kind, as well as interiors furnished in contemporary style. These include a hatter's workshop, a grocer's, a confectioner's, a kitchen, and an ale house known as the "Zwarte Kat."

The white limestone Kruispoort (town gate) at the end of Peperstraat dates from 1402. Running north from the gate, Kruisvest follows the line of the old ramparts. On the canal side are three windmills one of which, the Sint-Janshuysmolen (1770), can sometimes be seen working.

In the Woensdagmarkt, just to the north of Jan van Eyckplein, are a statue of Hans Memling and, near by, the Convent of the Black Sisters founded in 1561. The Oosterlingenplein beyond owes its name to the fact that the German Hanse had premises there (oosterling = easterling).