History

Recent History

A freshened Bruges, as the capital of the province of West-Vlaanderen, has a manufacturing centre outside the city that produces glass, electrical goods and chemicals, although it now lives largely off tourism.

Modern Day History

The city slowly woke up in the early 19th century as tourists started passing through en route to the Waterloo battlefield near Brussels. In 1892 Belgian writer and poet Georges Rodenbach published Bruges-la-Morte (Bruges the Dead), a novel which beguilingly described the town's forlorn air and alerted the well-heeled to its preserved charm. Ironically, this sealed its fate as a town frozen in time. In 1907 the Boudewijnkanaal, a canal linking Bruges to the new port of Zeebrugge, was constructed. (Although Zeebrugge suffered extensive damage during both world wars, Bruges had escaped unscathed.)

Pre 20th Century History

In medieval times the sea flooded the area around present-day Bruges, carving out channels and waterways such as the Zwin. As in other Flemish cities, textiles were Bruges' ticket to prosperity. Much trade was connected to England's wool industry, the source of the finest grade of wool, and by the late 13th century Bruges was a major centre in the cloth trade. In the 14th century Bruges became a key member of the Hanseatic League of Seventeen Cities, a powerful association of northern European trading cities, and the city reached its economic peak. Prosperity continued under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy. Bruges grew fat and by 1500 the population had ballooned to 200,000. Flemish art blossomed and the city's artists - known as the Flemish Primitives - created paintings that are still vivid today. During the 15th century the Zwin, the waterway linking Bruges to the sea, silted. Despite attempts to build another canal, the city's economic lifeline was gone. When the headquarters of the Hanseatic League moved from Bruges to Antwerp at the end of the century, many merchants followed, leaving abandoned houses, deserted streets and empty canals. Bruges, once a former hub of Europe, rolled into a 400 year slumber.