Attractions

Bruges’ most celebrated art gallery boasts an astonishingly rich collection whose strengths are in superb Flemish Primitive and Renaissance works, depicting the conspicuous wealth of the city with glitteringly reali…

The stadhuis’s western end morphs into the strangely invisible Heilig-Bloedbasiliek. The basilica takes its name from a phial supposedly containing a few drops of Christ’s blood that was brought here after the 12th …

Towering 83m above the square like a gigantic medieval rocket is the fabulous 13th-century belfort. There’s relatively little to see inside, but it’s worth the mildly claustrophobic 366-step climb for the fine views…

This large, somewhat sober 13th-century church sports an enormous tower that’s currently ‘wrapped’ for extensive renovation. Inside, it’s best known for Michelangelo’s serenely contemplative 1504 Madonna and Child s…

The beautiful 1420 stadhuis features a fanciful facade that’s second only to Leuven’s for exquisitely turreted Gothic excess. Inside, an audioguide explains numerous portraits in somewhat excessive detail before lea…

Most eye-catching with its early baroque gabling, gilt highlights and golden statuettes, this was once the palace of the ‘Liberty of Bruges’, the large autonomous territory and administrative body that ruled from Br…

Just inside the main entrance of the begijnhof, this is a charming 17th-century house now converted into an endearing little four-room museum. In the rustic kitchen with its blue and white Delft tiles you’ll see a L…

The Historium occupies a neo-Gothic building on the northern side of the Markt. Taking visitors back to 1435, it is a multimedia experience, claiming to be more medieval movie than museum. The 'immersive' one-hour a…

Bruges’ delightful begijnhof originally dates from the 13th century. Although the last begijn has long since passed away, today residents of the pretty, whitewashed garden complex include a convent of Benedictine nu…

The appealling Museum voor Volkskunde presents visitors with 18 themed tableaux illustrating Flemish life in times gone by (a 1930s sweetshop, a hatter’s workshop, a traditional kitchen etc). It’s a static affair, b…