Photos

The belfry of Bruges, one of the most beautiful in Belgium, dominates its 84 m of the Grand Place and Les Halles. Its two floors, square, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its crenellated facade makes it one of the most typical representatives of the architectural style "Bruges" or "Flemish". The Town Hall, Gothic, testifies to the past grandeur of Bruges, the "Venice of the North, formerly bridgehead for trade with England and northern France. The decline of the city began in the fifteenth century, partly due to the gradual silting of the harbor. The statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck commemorates the memory of the Battle of the Golden Spurs (1302), highlight the assertion of Flemish identity consciousness, where people successfully resisted the expansionist ambitions of the neighboring French.