Belfry of Bruges

The Belfry of Bruges rises eighty-three meters above the Market Square, its octagonal stone crown tilting slightly to the southeast. Merchants built this tower in the thirteenth century to store the city charter and to signal the wealth of their cloth guilds. In fourteen ninety-three, lightning struck the wooden spire, setting the bells ablaze. The molten metal rained down on the square below. People still point to the subtle lean of the tower, a lingering consequence of unstable soil and centuries of settling.