36 Route’3. BRUGES. Centre of City:

Granv’ Puace or Groote Markt (P1. B, ©, 5; band-concerts on
Sat. evening insummer), the heart of the city. In the centre stands
a colossal Monument to Jan Breidel and Pieter de Coninc, guild-
masters and leaders of the citizens of Bruges at the ‘Bruges Matins’,
or massacre of the French garrison on 18th May, 1302, and in the
‘Battle of the Spurs’ at Courtrai (p. 79). The monument, erected in
1887, is by P. de Vigne.

The S. side of the square is occupied by the Halles, a large
building erected in the 13th and 14th cent., and altered in 1561-66
from designs by Peter Diericx. The building forms a rectangle, 143 ft.
broad and 276 ft. deep. The Belfry (Tour des Halles or Halletoren),
353 ft. in height, rebuilt after a conflagration in 1280, rises in the
centre of the facade and leans slightly towards the S.E. The two
massive square lower stories, flanked with corner-turrets, date
from the 13-44th cent.; the lofty octagon above was added in 1482;
and the parapet in 1822. Over the portal is a statue of the Ma-
donna. The entrance to the tower is in the picturesque court to the
right; visitors ring at the Conciergerie (comp. p. 24), upstairs in
the gallery. A steep, dark staircase of 402 steps leads up to the
bells above the tower-watchman’s room. The chimes, among the
largest in Belgium, were restored in 1748 by De Hondt. In clear
weather the view extends on the N.W. to the sea, on the S. to
Courtrai, and on the E. to Ghent.

The groundfloor of the E. wing contains the Municipal Archeological
Museum (Musée Archéologique; adm., see p. 24; entrance from the market-
place), including old plans and views of Bruges; a stained-glass window
from the Painters’ Guild House, with St. George and the Dras gon (45th cent.);
a spinet of 1654; coins, medals, objects in forged iron, old chests and
coffers, architectural and sculptural fragments, and paintings from tombs
of the 45th century.

‘In the market-place of Bruges
Stands the belfry old and brown;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded,
Still it watches o’er the town’. (Longfellow.)

 

 

On the EK. side of the market-place are the new Government
Buildings (Pl. C, 5), occupying the site of the old Cloth Hall, pulled
down in 1787. Adjoining is the Post and Telegraph Office (Pl. 7;
C, 5), completed in 4891, the upper story of which contains the
Municipal Archives (fee for consultation, 21/2 fr. per day), Both these
buildings are in the Gothic style, the former in hewn stone, the
latter in brick with sandstone adornments.

On the W. side of the market-place, at the corner of the Rue
St. Amand, is a house formerly belonging to the Bouchoute family,
a brick building of the 15th cent., adorned with a gilded lion and
poorly restored about 1850. According to a popular but probably
erroneous tradition, it was occupied for a time by Charles IJ. of Eng-
land, while living here in exile about 1650. The citizens of Bruges
conferred upon him a title of royalty by creating him ‘King of the
Guild of Archers’. — In the opposite house, called the Cranenburg