A boat ride on the Bruges canals on a sunny winter day is always a moment of wonder and enchantment. In fact, there aren't probably too many places left in the world like Bruges. Like the sleeping beauty of fairytale fame, it slept for 400 years until it was awaken by the kiss of international tourism and what a happily ever after tale Bruges boasts today !
Bruges, the sleeping beauty, gem of medieval Flemish Scheldt Gothic and Renaissance, is a city out of time where one can stroll through narrow cobblestone streets along small beguine houses, take a carriage ride along age-old buildings, churches and picturesque bridges, wander through the parks and squares, get on a boat tour on the canals or have a dreamy gaze at the weepy willow trees bordering the lake of love.
We'd rather prefer it inflamed by the colours of autumn, ghostly bathing in fog or snow or lit by the first sunrays of spring than invaded by summer tourists.
Bruges sometimes surprises, sometimes fascinates but always charms its visitors.
The history of the city reads like a novel. Though its origins probably date back to antiquity, it was in the ninth century that it became the capital of the County of Flanders. Baldwin V ruled at the time. He was the regent of France under Robert I and the father of Matilda, Duchess of Normandy Queen of England. The Counts of Flanders continued to strengthen their ties with Bruges in the Middle Ages. In the twelfth century, Thierry d'Alsace brought "the precious blood of Christ" relic from his crusades to Bruges and built a huge basilica to its honor and glory.
This "Holy Blood" has been, until this very day, an important symbol for the reputation of the city. Some tend to believe that Thierry d'Alsace ordered Chretien de Troyes to write the story of the Grail, to bring even more pilgrims and prosperity to the city .
The City took great pride in its liberties. Woe to those who did not respect them, regardless whether they were a count or a duke. Through the centuries, many nobles were forced to comply to charters: Guy de Dampierre, the dukes of Burgundy, Maximilian of Austria ...
Bruges became the commercial capital of the north through trade, of drapery in particular.
It thrived and prospered due to its strong economy and became an international cross roads: Here, one would find all the goods that could be bought and sold across the known world: oranges, tangerines, pink waters, exotic animals herbs and spices, sugar, rice, wines, furs, silk, not to forget the entirely handmade needlepoint laces made of the finest, superior linen thread that would later become a universally recognized Flemish trademark.
At the end of the fifteenth century it had reached the status of preeminent financial metropole. Besides bankers like the Flemish Van der Beurze who gave their name to the first home based stock market whose seat is still visible today, Italian financiers thronged to settle in.
Where money and power gathers, culture flourishes ... Famous painters, musicians, architects, writers, the city attracted everything Europe accounted for artistic talents.
But prosperity has its time... From the mid-sixteenth century, the decline set in.
The reasons were manifold ...
The steady silting of the Zwin polders around 1400 crippled the city's access to the North Sea for large vessels, the economic competition from England, the development of new cities like Antwerp and Ghent, the shift of power to Madrid and Vienna ...
The city mourned its loss of political clout and the poverty of the region left it to its fate while its neighbours, Ghent and Antwerp, industrially flourished and architecturally renewed.
The crisis was not immediately noticeable, though. Bruges continued to build magnificent buildings, Gothic churches and schools where the great masters of Flemish painting, among those, the brothers Van Dyck and Hans Memling, prospered as never before.
By the late 16th century, the lustre of grandeur had faded and Bruges gradually slumbered into oblivion. A winter sleep that would last for several centuries.
During the 19th century new textile industries were introduced in vain. By the mid 1800s, Bruges was the poorest city of Belgium ...
Paradoxically, this unaltered historical heritage would largely determine its future appeal.
In the nineteenth century British tourists entering the mainland from Ostend on their way to Waterloo discovered the sleeping beauty in all its subtle splendour. In the heydays of romanticism the ravishing view of this mesmerizing lost world inflamed a passion that has never faltered since. 'Bruges-la-morte' immortalized through Georges Rodenbach's Symbolist novel has now entered a new era of international tourism ...
(an alternative version of this clip including some highlights of the city can be viewed at [ Ссылка ])
