Market & Belfry, Bruges

The Market square, Forum or Burg, is the centre of the town. One of the most confusing things about Belgium, is that everything seems to have at least three names. As a tri-lingual country, it can be confusing for visitors. The market square itself is 100 metres in length, with a total area of about one hectare.   The fortress of Count Baldwin was originally located here. The area once not only held the market, but also festivals and jousts.

The statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, who were leaders of the uprising against King Philip IV, which resulted in the Battle of Golden Spurs, can be seen in the Market Square. The statue was erected in 1887, when Romanticism (what we may know as gothic revival), was in fashion.

The Belfry is a common sight in medieval Flemish towns. The building dates from the Middle Ages and was built as a symbol of the freedom and wealth of the people of Bruges.

The lower section of the Belfry in Bruges dates from the 13th Century. The middle section, up to the octagonal tower, was added in the 14th Century and the octagonal tower itself dates from the 15th Century.

The Belfry is 83 meters (272 feet) in height and can be visited by those willing to climb its 366 steps. The Belfry was also used as a lookout post in case of war, or fire.

During the middle ages, the Belfry housed the city’s seal and its archives in its treasure chamber.

The Historium building dates from the late 19th Century and was built in the Neo-Gothic fashion, on the site of an old medieval water mill and covered harbour, or waterhalle, a sort of covered warehouse where goods were loaded and unloaded, along the canal that ran here. It was demolished in 1787. The harbour in the middle ages came right up to the square itself. The building opened to visitors in 2012, and tries to bring to life 15th Century Bruges.

Cranenburg House, on the market square, is where in 1488 Emperor Maximilian of Austria was incarcerated, while he watched his supporters being executed in the square below. One of these men was Pieter Lanckhals, who’s coat of arms was a swan. Maximilian later obliged the council of Bruges to keep swans on the canal for all eternity, so that the people would never forget the cruel murder of Pieter Lanckhals.

The oldest façade on the market is that of Huis Bouchotte. This was where King Charles II of England stayed during his exile in the 17th Century.

The buildings in the square are not all quite as old as they may appear. The market was completely renovated in 1995 and what we see today, while charming, is completely different to what it would have looked like in the middle ages. There were once many large private residences on the square.