Lace and Folk Life

A low, whitewashed wall sits on the corner of Blekersstraat, topped with a plain wooden sign that simply says Vlissinghe. Inside this small building, the rooms stay much as they did when the doors opened in fifteen fifteen. It holds the…

The Sint-Annakerk in Bruges features a plain, whitewashed exterior that hides an incredibly ornate Baroque interior. While the current structure dates back to the seventeenth century, a church has occupied this spot since the thirteen…

The Jerusalem Church rises above the surrounding houses with a slender, onion-shaped tower topped by a distinctive metal cross. Built in the fifteen hundreds by the Adornes family, this private chapel mimics the Church of the Holy…

The Kantcentrum occupies a narrow, seventeenth-century building identifiable by the intricate stone lace pattern carved into its facade. This center preserves the craft of bobbin lace, a trade that once sustained thousands of women in…

The Volkskundemuseum occupies a row of seven small, whitewashed almshouses along the Balstraat. These houses date back to the late fourteenth century and once provided shelter for elderly or indigent members of the local guilds. In the…

The Guido Gezellemuseum occupies a modest, whitewashed house with a deep, sloping roof that marks the corner of Rolweg. This is the birthplace of the nineteenth-century poet Guido Gezelle. He grew up here while his father worked the…

The Koninklijke Hoofdgilde Sint-Sebastiaan in Bruges is marked by a distinctive white stepped gable topped with a tall, slender tower that reaches toward the sky. Archers founded this guild in the fourteenth century to help defend the city…

The Sint-Janshuismolen rises above the grassy ramparts of Bruges on a tall, dark wooden base. Built in seventeen seventy, this windmill ground grain for the city long after similar structures vanished from the skyline. While other mills…