Saint John’s Hospital

The thick brick walls and steep gables of Saint John’s Hospital stand out among the timber-framed houses of Bruges. Established in the twelfth century, this facility cared for pilgrims, travelers, and the sick for over eight hundred years. Brother Mauricius once stood in these halls, documenting the daily lives of the monks and nuns who managed the infirmary. He left behind a ledger detailing the specific herbs grown in the cloister garden to treat the patients resting in the long, vaulted ward.