Cultural highlights of the Venice of the North

About the Cultural highlights of the Venice of the North

With its almost intact medieval street plan Bruges is certainly an evocative open air museum. Having survived the two World Wars, Bruges luckily preserved all its art treasures and museums. The Groeninge Museum for example ranks among Belgium’s top three. We need about eight hours to show you all the highlights of Bruges.

Morning:
We start our day with a cruise on the canals of Bruges. Being seen from a different angle Bruges’ loveliest places look even more charming.

In the Groeninge Museum we find an excellent survey of works by Belgian painters from the 15th century till today. This museum boasts a complete collection of the Flemish Primitives like Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling and Pieter Brueghel.  In the modern art section we find Paul Delvaux, René Magritte, Constant Permeke and Gustave van de Woestyne .

We continue over the Dijver. There we find the College of Europe that offers lectures and seminars on all aspects of the European Union to a selection of postgraduate students from all member countries.
Lunch in restaurant ‘t Huidevettershuis, a unique historical building along one of the canals. This restaurant was the guild house of the politically influential tanners . The basement is from 1450, the present façade is of 1680. 3 course lunch, drinks not included.

Afternoon:
After lunch we go to the Burg Square for a visit of the prestigious Gothic Chamber of the Town Hall. We continue to the Market Square and enter the inner courtyard of the dominating belfry . With the halls as a backdrop we may hear the distinctive sounds of the 47 bells carillon , one of the finest in the world.

Halfway to ‘t Zand square we stop and visit the St Saviour Cathedral. After being confronted with the ultra modern Concert Hall we go back in time again to the Old Saint John site. There in the premises of the former hospital we visit the Memling in Sint-Jan Hospital Museum, for a great deal dedicated to one of the best known Flemish Primitives, Hans Memling. The museum also gives a moving impression of what life was like in a medieval hospital ward.

We end our day tour at the Minnewater park and walk through the hushed beauty of the Princely Beguinage Ter Wijngaerde( 1245). In this peculiarly medieval institution a quasi-religious community of women lived and carried out good works like making and selling lace as an income for the hospital where some of them worked as nurses. Nuns of the Order of St Benedict live here since 1927. They punctually close the beguinage every day at 6.30 p.m..