Bruges led the Flemings in rebellion against the incursions of Philip IV of France into
Flanders in 1302 and became involved in the revolt of maritime Flanders between 1323
and 1328 as a result of the count of Flanders’s attempt to limit the city’s monopolies at
Sluis. After this rebellion failed, Bruges generally supported the Flemish counts unless
pressure was applied from Ghent, joining only reluctantly in the effort to suppress the
cloth industries of the smaller communities. Particularly during the Flemish rebellion of
the 1380s, Bruges favored the count except when garrisons of Ghent were in the city.
Bruges was the wealthiest Flemish city, although it was smaller than Ghent, reaching a
maximum population of around 35,000 in 1340 and declining thereafter in the wake of
plague and civil conflict. The development by the Italians of vessels that could make
voyages from the Mediterranean to the North Sea ports made Bruges the “marketplace of
the medieval world.” During the 14th century, various Italian groups, together with the
Castilians, the merchants of the German Hanse, and the English, had resident colonies at
Bruges. Virtually all the seaborne trade of Flanders went through the city. Although
Bruges had a substantial textile industry, commercial wealth and its small-volume luxury
industry were more important, and its occupational structure was thus more diversified
than those of Ypres and Ghent, its neighbors and frequent rivals.
Bruges reached the height of its commercial prosperity and political importance in the
15th century. The Burgundian counts spent most of their time there and at Brussels.
Under the patronage of their court, music and the plastic arts flourished at Bruges. In the
15th century, Bruges was the center of Flemish painting, boasting such masters as Jan
van Eyck (ca. 1380–1441), Petrus Christus (d. ca. 1473), Hans Memling (ca. 1430–1494),
Hugo van der Goes (ca. 1440–1482), and Gérard David (ca. 1460–1523). But the
continued silting of the Zwin, the advantages of Antwerp, the Flemish wars after 1477,
and piracy all contributed to the rapid decline of Bruges, and after 1500 its only economic
role was as a regional market for west Flanders. It continued, however, to exercise
considerable political power as one of the four “members” of Flanders, along with its
castellany, the “Franc” of Bruges.
The 13th-century bell tower of Bruges is, at 268 feet, the tallest in Belgium. The
basilica of the Holy Blood (Saint-Sang) was begun ca. 1150 to house a vial of Christ’s
blood brought back from the Crusades by Thierry d’Alsace, count of Flanders. Its lower
chapel retains its Romanesque character, but most of the basilica was rebuilt in the later
Middle Ages in Flamboyant style. The nearby Hotel de Ville (1376–1420) is an excellent
example of secular Gothic architecture. Its six tall windows and three turrets give its
façade a strong sense of verticality. The Bruges béguinage was founded in 1245 by
Marguerite de Constantinople, countess of Flanders, but its buildings are largely
postmedieval. Other medieval buildings in Bruges include the church of Notre-Dame
(largely 13th c.), which houses the tombs of Charles the Bold (d. 1477) and his daughter,
Marie de Bourgogne; the church of Saint-Sauveur, founded in the 10th century; and the
Gothic lockhouse of the former inner harbor (Minnewater).
David M.Nicholas
[See also: BÉGUINES; BURGUNDY; FLANDERS; GHENT; VAN EYCK, JAN;
YPRES]
de Roover, Raymond. Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges. Cambridge: Mediaeval
Academy of America, 1948.
Gilliodts-van Severen, Louis. Inventaire des archives de la ville de Bruges. Section première:
inventaire des chartes. 7 vols. Bruges: Gaillard, 1871–78.
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