Bruges - a tour to the Begijnhof
Havens of peace in a busy tourist city
This tour starts outside the Sint Janshospitaal – one of the oldest hospitals in Europe. It was founded in 1150, though most of what you see now dates from the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries.
Go through the gate, and round to the right, to see the west ends of the three naves that formed the hospital wards. Each of them is built almost exactly like the nave of a church – the sick would have laid in the aisles, and the nave would probably have provided a corridor. That's the same layout as most monastic infirmaries, though this was never a monastic foundation.
The left side is Romanesque, with a rose window in the gable, and round arched arcades – it's all in brick, Bruge's characteristic building material. In the middle, don't be bamboozled by the French Gothic style porch – look up, and you'll see the same Romanesque style gable with a rose window. On the right, probably a little later, a third nave reinterprets the same form.
While these wards no longer fulfilled their function, Bruges kept the hospital here – building new, nineteenth century buildings on to the old ones. And they're not unattractive.
The old hospital buildings now house the Memling
museum. Memling was actually born near Frankfurt, and made his name in Brussels
– but he moved to Bruges in 1466 and stayed here nearly thirty years,
till his death in 1494. He's as allusive as van Eyck, creating a fascinating
symbolic discourse in his paintings; in the diptych of Maarten 
Nieuwenhove
that you can see in the museum here, he even includes a convex mirror like
the one in Van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Marriage'.
But I'm going to take you further up the street – you can visit the museum later! Now we'll go up Katalijnestraat, over the bridge – with a fine view of the hospital. But ignore it – instead, find the little doorway to Godshuis Spanooghe on the right and dart through the alleyway.
The Godshuis, or almshouse, has little cottages round a fine garden. Go down to the canal and you get an even sweeter view of the hospital, and there's a little bench to sit on. I particularly like this spot on a sunny morning; sit and read a book, or just daydream a little.
Back on to the busy thoroughfare and we'll take another quite different alleyway – Stoofstraat. It actually goes past the back of the Spanooghe, but it couldn't be more different in feel. And there's nothing godly about it – it's called 'stoofstraat' from the baths (or 'stews' in Shakespeare's English) that were here. And baths in the Middle Ages weren't much better than brothels. This is an incredibly narrow street. Not much chance to avoid your acquaintances if they were coming the other way when you were about to take a... bath...
Stoofstraat comes out to Walplein. This is real tourist trap Bruges, except that it's still got a working brewery here. This was originally the Henry Maes brewery, then Straffe Hendrick, and it's now 'Brugse Zot'.
This takes its name from a story of the emperor Maximilian, who was asked whether he would subscribe towards setting up a new lunatic asylum in the town. “Madmen?” he asked; “Lunatics? Since I got here I've seen nothing but lunatics – Bruges is a madhouse!” And that's how the Brugse Zotten (Bruges fools) got their name.
It's worth remembering that the burghers of Bruges locked Maximilian up for several months at one point, trying to hold him to ransom. History does not record whether this was before or after he made the wisecrack about 'Brugse Zotten'.
This is a superb tower brewery from 1936. You get a better view of the brewery if you go into the courtyard. You can take a brewery trip, or drink a Brugse Zot in the bar here. I have to say that a glass of beer is one of my favourite sights in Bruges!
In the square outside, you'll find an odd sculpture. It represents Leda and the Swan – the god Jupiter in disguise, as he often was when a pretty woman was involved – but it's quite a strange take on them. The swan isn't a pretty one – it has a real parson’s nose and is begging for chestnut and mushroom stuffing. And of course, they're out to take the air in a typical Bruges horse-drawn carriage.
Now head down Walstraat, for a view of two lovely step gabled cottages. One of them is now a boutique with some lovely, unusual clothes.
Turn right, then left down Nieuwe Gentweg, and you'll find more almshouses with a lush garden in the middle. First de Meulenaere, then St-Josef. I hang about here waiting for one of the well fed, happy cats that live in the garden to wander by; if I'm very persuasive, he might just deign to let me stroke his fur. Round the back, in Driekroezenstraat, you can see even more almshouses - OLV Zeven Ween, or the Seven Sorrows of Mary, from 1654.
Most people remember Bruges as a city of wonderful brick. But it's the white painted almshouses that caught my eye – and wherever there's an almshouse, that pure white will be complemented by the green of gardens.
Now cross Katelijnenstraat again, and go down Wijngaardstraat to the horse fountain. From here you'll see the Begijnhof gate, so we can go into the Begijnhof from here. (Note the model nun in one of the dormer windows.)
The Beguines (in French) or Begijnen (in Flemish) are a uniquely Netherlandish order. They're not nuns, as their vows are not permanent – women could leave the Begijnhof at any point. The order was established in 1189, by Lambert le Begue (hence the name). Originally, it was intended for the widows of men who had died on Crusade. In an age when women had few choices, the Begijnhof offered a reasonably private, independent life without a vocation – they didn't have to take binding vows. Nor did they take a vow of poverty – though they did have to promise chastity and obedience. The nuns here now are Benedictines, not Beguines; elsewhere, the Beguines have more or less died out, and most of those who are left are now very old.
This Begijnhof was founded by Margaret of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders. (Her father, Baldwin, had become Latin Emperor of Constantinople while leading a Crusade, after the job had been turned down by Doge Enrico Dandolo of Venice. However, Baldwin lasted less than a year – he was captured at the battle of Adrianople, and died in a Bulgarian prison.)
Margaret may have had a good reason to found a religious institution. Her first marriage was condemned by the Pope – but never annulled, making her second marriage officially bigamous. Struggles between the children of the two marriages bedevilled the peace of Flanders for some time.
The Begijnhof has a classical, serene feeling rather like an English cathedral close, with its huge poplar trees and fine lawn. But look under the skin of many of these houses, which look as if they come from the eighteenth century, and you can see their medieval bones.
The church is very simple, as usual with Beguine churches. The Beguine spirituality grew up at the same time as the Franciscan order, and many heresies (Waldensians, Joachimites, Albigensians) all pursuing a more simple, plainer, life. But it was also a life suffused by mysticism – a life in which the emotional and mystical fulness of spirituality was set off by the plainness of the Beguines' material world. It seems quite typical that the most ornate decoration in the church is on the ‘bancs à pains’, benches for laying out bread for the poor.
Don't forget to pay your respects to Notre Dame de Spermalie, a figure of 1240 in the right aisle.
The Begijnhof can be overrun by tourists. If it is, don't despair; turn up in the early morning when it's at its best.
Now we'll go out of the other side of the Begijnhof, to the Minnewater and the fifteenth century lock house. If you look up to the other end of the lake, you will have to use your imagination a little to see it as it would have been in the fifteenth century, when there were two towers, instead of the one that's there today. With two towers defending the lake, Bruges' watchmen could throw a chain across to prevent enemy ships from sailing in. And since this is where boats could enter the canal to Ghent, controlling the traffic was a major consideration.
I'm sorry to debunk one pretty fable – the name 'Minnewater' doesn't mean 'Lake of love'. It would do in German, but we're not in Germany. Here, it meant the 'interior water', the inner harbour.
This is a lovely place to stop and relax, and it's an easy walk from here to t'Zand, the new market square, to the train station, or back into the centre.
If you enjoyed this tour why not buy our Podtour of Bruges?