I love to see the tiny Armenian churches, the octagonal domes and the ornate sculptures on the facades give it a visual harmony of beauty, as if heaven is a trickle, full of warmth and fraternity. I also like to see the magnificent Gothic Catholic church, the spire that soars into the sky and the intricate external design give it a visual impact, as if heaven is a cold wind, full of majesty and solemnity. Although Armenian churches and Gothic Catholic churches feel very different, when the church bells ring, the melodious bells bring people the same feeling of spiritual purification, which makes people temporarily forget the hustle and bustle and abandon their worries.
Bruges
However, not all bells are like spring wind and rain, so that spring colors fill the world. In Bruges at the beginning of the 14th century, the sound of bells in the early morning made the place bleed, and the Bruges militia, dominated by craftsmen and peasants, defeated the invincible noble cavalry of France, and at least a thousand knights were killed. The battle, known as the "Bruges Morning Prayer," not only ended the myth of cavalry supremacy, but also brought great shock to European military commanders, and triggered a deep retrial of military strategy and technology in Europe. Why do Bruges want to wash the French in blood? What is the deep hatred between them? The story is long, please listen to it.
Before Julius Caesar conquered this place, little is known about the history of Bruges, which is across the strait from The United Kingdom. After it entered the extended family of Gallo, Belgium, Rome built a fortress here to resist pirates invading from the sea. Bruges at this time, north of the North Sea. For this reason, it means trestle or pier in the norman old language. When the Roman Empire was dying, the Roman mercenaries, the Franks, occupied the area in the fourth century AD. As the Frankish Empire disintegrated, counts and dukes within the empire began to stand on their own, and Baldwin I, the Earl of Flemish, was no exception. He built himself a castle in Bruges, which became the base camp of Flemish.
Unlike the other counts, Baldwin I, who had eaten the heart of a bear, kidnapped the daughter of Charles III, the last emperor to rule all the Frankish territories. It is said that on their way to Bruges, they encountered a bear covered in snow, which was famous for attacking people who left Bruges, which Baldwin I put to death. Coincidentally, at this time the Vikings invaded Bruges and other places, and Baldwin I, who had fled to Rome, married charles III's daughter with the support of the Pope. Charles III, fearing that Baldwin I and the Vikings would jointly attack the Franks, acquiesced to the marriage and offered the terms for Baldwin I to confront the Vikings. The contentious Baldwin I repelled several waves of Vikings and earned himself the nickname "Iron Arm". Today one can see not only the bear in the badge of Bruges, but also his statue on the façade of Bruges' town hall.
This Baldwin I was the founder of the Flemish Empire. As the base camp of the Flemish brethren, the glorious chapter of Bruges has been recorded in the annals of history with the rise of Flemishland, and it has been remembered for eternity. Why?
Located in the lowlands of Flanders, the Dutch word means flooded land. The nearest neighbor to this area facing the North Sea is England, a little farther away is the Germans of Scandinavia, and one of the best ports to trade with these people is Bruges. When Baldwin I died, Flemish was still suffering from Vikings, and his son married the daughter of Alfred the Great, the first english man in English history to call himself "Anglo-Saxon King", thus forming an alliance with England against the Vikings, and the sphere of influence of the Flemish Empire extended to the Somme in present-day France, less than 200 kilometers from Paris. From this time on, Flemish often "wore one-legged pants" with the British, and was always vigilant against the Frankish kingdom to which Flanders belonged, which sowed the seeds of hatred for the Hundred Years' War between England and France. However, this was more than 4 centuries away from the Hundred Years' War between England and France.
When the Vikings were conquered, some of them settled in Flemish and integrated with the locals, trade also resumed, but Bruges was still Zhao Feiyan in the "Ring Fat Swallow Thin", and the willow thin waist was not a hand, so that it became the Yang Yuhuan in the "Ring Fat Swallow Thin" until the great strides in wool textile technology in the middle of the 11th century. Because of the revolutionary innovation of textile technology, the cities along the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt rose rapidly, and Ghent and Bruges, which import wool from England, became textile centers, and Bruges, bordering the North Sea in the north and crisscrossed with canals in the city, became trading centers because of its location at the hub of various trade routes. At that time, the two main trade routes in the city started from the bazaar in the central square, one to the east to Ghent and the other to the south to courtrai in present-day Belgium.
If Bruges at this time was only engaged in inland trade, then when the first merchant ship of Genoa sailed into Bruges in the 13th century, it became the first commercial colony connecting the Mediterranean and the North Sea, and the long-distance trade became its "commonplace". Before the voyage trade, Bruges acquired the right to the city in the 12th century to build new walls and canals, nearly 2 centuries before antwerp, the "disciple" who later succeeded him. After the founding of the city, Bruges accumulated great wealth through the textile trade and became one of the important cities in the Flemish cloth market circle. At this time, the Hanseatic League had not yet formed, the Venetian Republic had not dominated the Mediterranean, and there was no battle for maritime supremacy with its nemesis, Genoa, but Bruges was already fragrant and fluttering.
When the Hanseatic League was established, Bruges, along with London in britain, Bergen in Norway and Novgorod in Russia, became the four major trading stations of the Hanseatic League, and the ships of the Hanseatic League were parked in the harbor, and the grain of Normandy and the wine of France were waiting to be disembarked. By this time, the Venetian Republic had helped the Crusaders to loot Constantinople, the "eye of all the cities", monopolize the trade routes between east and west and monopolize the oriental spice trade, and the Genoese were completely squeezed out of the lucrative spice market. However, when the progressive Genoese helped the Byzantine government-in-exile to retake Constantinople, they took back their share of the spice trade and sailed the first merchant ship full of spices and other goods into Bruges in 1277. From the beginning of the year, Bruges became Genoa's first commercial colony connecting the Mediterranean and North Sea trade. Favored by the Hanseatic League and Genoa, two commercial "giants", Bruges did not want to soar, and for a period of time afterwards it monopolized almost all of the textile trade in Western Europe. Huge trade volumes brought great wealth and attracted huge capital, and the banking industry in Bruges developed rapidly, and the stock exchange opened in 1309.
If the 17th century was the era of Amsterdam, the 16th century was the era of Antwerp, the 15th century was the era of Florence, the 14th century was the era of Venice, then the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century were the era of Bruges, because the financial industry in these places was highly developed. Bruges created the world's first exchange, the name of which was taken from a place de la Bourse in Bruges, and Venice, the world's first truly international financial center, learned financial market techniques 5 years after the establishment of the Bruges Exchange. In the exchanges of Bruges, the Florentines, Genoese and Venetians all had consular rooms, which became a place for merchants from all over the world to meet and trade in financial and commodity business. However, commodities, coins and bills are mainly traded here, there are no securities and stocks trading, and there are no professional intermediaries who are proficient in securities trading technology.
The consequence of being too rich is that it is easy to make people blush, and the most popular in Bruges is King Philip IV of France. Before he ascended to the throne, he married the mistress of the hereditary lord of Champagne, a territory that gave birth to a milestone in the history of the world economy and witnessed the beginning of the Champagne Bazaar, the beginning of the modern market economy organization. You can imagine how luxurious this territory is. But with the rise of Bruges, the Champagne market slowly declined. When the rich Champagne region became part of France, when Philip IV's kingship was strengthened, when Philip IV was defeated in the war against the Plantagenet dynasty of England, Philip IV's claws reached out to Flemish, who nominally belonged to it, but sided with England in the war, and he tried to take the rich Flemish by force. The French attacked the city until they encountered the "Bruges Morning Prayer", also known as the Battle of the Golden Spurs, in Bruges.
Bruges City Gate
The campaign took place in the 7th year before the bruges exchange was founded. When the bells of the morning prayer rang, the Bruges used the Dutch phrase "shelter or friend" to verify whether they were friend or foe, the French soldiers who could not speak Dutch were all killed, the top commander of the French army also died in the siege, and a large number of French knights' golden spurs were captured. No one expected that the "tall" French cavalry would eventually be defeated by the "ragtag" of Bruges, which was mainly infantry. The Bruges Morning Prayer was praised by writers for this landmark battle of infantry victory over cavalry, and The Lion of Flanders was one of them.
The defeat of the French army in the "Bruges Morning Prayer" left Philip IV with a grudge against Bruges and Flanders, and two years later won a decisive victory in the battle against the Flemish army. In order to maintain his independent position in the Kingdom of France, the Count of Flanders had to sign a treaty with Philip IV, paying reparations for the cession of land and paying a huge fine to the King of France every year. When the treaty was signed, Bruges immediately launched an uprising, but to no avail, and it was not abrogated more than 20 years later, in 1337, when the Hundred Years' War broke out between England and France. Although the treaty did not destroy Bruges, the Hundred Years' War between England and France gradually lost its status as a cloth trading center, but it remained a banking, luxury trade and cultural center, known to the New Flanders for their oil painting skills, and the world's first English book was printed here.
What brought it to its doom was the siltation of the river in the early 16th century. The silted river channel made it impossible for merchant ships to dock, and the bright eyes of Bruges slowly faded into a sleeping city, which was written into a novel by Belgian writers called "Dead Bruges". However, even if time is no longer attached to "beauty", the background of "beauty" must still be there, just like the classic line in the black humor movie "In Bruges", "It is a fairytale place." Those canals, the stone bridges, the stone streets, the churches and the swans are all fairy tales." I set off from my accommodation in Antwerp to Bruges in search of "something from a fairy tale".
Driving out of Antwerp's old town, I stopped by Maison Guiette, a world heritage site on the outskirts of Antwerp. Built in the 1920s, this small building is said to have broken through the limitations of the foundation and area and achieved freedom of floor plan. It was seen as the birth of a new architectural language, and the architects who designed the small building were therefore known as the "father of functionalism". No matter how remarkable the building is, in the eyes of me, an uncultured person, it is as boring as the Ritterfeld House, a world cultural heritage site in Utrecht, the Netherlands, at least the Ritterfeld House is not being repaired, and I can see the whole picture from the outside.
World Heritage Maison Guiette
Damme Town
The world heritage site, which is being renovated, is not worth my stop, and after a quick glance at it, I drive to the small town of Damme, which was once the "eye" of Bruges, in the middle of the gloomy sky. The reason why it can become the "eye" of Bruges is because Bruges' own waterways and ocean connections in the vicissitudes of the sea are very unstable, often inseparable from the coastline, and because the sediment gradually silts up, it cannot be directly adjacent to the North Sea. However, a storm in 1134 created a natural sea route to the North Sea, which extended to the coastal city of Dame, making it an out port and a trade outpost for Bruges. Today a canal connects two of them, less than 10 kilometers apart. As I drove into the town, which had only one main street, I found the classic architecture with Flemish elements that I had seen in Antwerp. The town's streets are empty, the town hall, built in the late 14th century, stands alone along the streets, and the canal to Bruges flows quietly. Away from the hustle and bustle of Antwerp, this quiet town makes me feel like I'm back in lockdown Holland.
I drove out of town and into the hostel in less than 10 minutes, and I wanted to experience the feeling of backpacking in Belgium. Hostel parking is free, also including breakfast, I think it is very cost-effective. The whole parking lot is only me one car a night, paying a lot of car rental fees, but living in a cheap hostel, it is estimated that only people like me will do such strange things. The room is also a dormitory, with 6 beds, but the bathroom and bathroom are outside the room, which is almost the same as the university dormitory. Luckily, there were only two people in the room, but the girl didn't come back until I was asleep, and when she came back, she turned on the dangling fluorescent lamp. At that moment, I told myself that I would never stay in a hostel again.
Lake of Love
The hostel is not far from minnewater, also known as Swan Lake, which has a nice name. Some people say that the scenery here is like a beautiful landscape painting and is the most beautiful place in Bruges. The swans swim gracefully in the lake, and the people leisurely talk about love. However, in this cold winter, I did not see beautiful swans, nor romantic couples, only the unclear river flowing.
In this medieval town surrounded by canals, there is also a Bonifacius Bridge with a beautiful name. The reason it is so beloved among the 50 bridges of Bruges is that the legend says that the first person of the opposite sex you meet after stepping on the bridge will fall in love with you at first sight. But I walked from one end of the bridge to the other, and I didn't meet a single gasp except for me. Although I didn't see a single living person at love bridge at first sight, when I walked into the Church of Our Lady in the old city on Christmas Eve, I could describe it as a crowded place. Bruges' old town is stronger and more lingering than antwerp's medieval flavor, and this smell makes me go from dawn to darkness in spite of the cold.
Love bridge at first sight
Church of Our Lady
Built in the 13th century in roman and Gothic styles, this church is the tallest brick church on the European continent, and its bell tower is the tallest building in the city, so one can see it from all locations on the streets of Bruges. But the bell tower, which is 1 meter shorter than the Bell Tower in Antwerp, is not the most proud of this imposing church, it is most proud of its preservation of the statue of Michelangelo's Virgin and child. Originally made for the Cathedral of Siena, Italy, this white marble sculpture was bought at a high price by Bruges merchants and became the only statue of Michelangelo that has been passed down outside of Italy, and has now become the treasure of the church. The treasure of the town was snatched by Napoleon and Hitler, and finally recaptured by the Allied treasure hunting team.
Unlike the heavy black tones of many medieval churches, the interior of The Cathedral of Notre Dame, made of white marble, make it look quiet and refreshing, and it does not feel depressing. The interior of this church has only 5 identical halls and no ear halls, which makes it unique compared to other churches, so people habitually call it "the beautiful and magnificent central masonry hall". Most of the stained glass inside the church is well preserved, telling the story of the Middle Ages and allowing my heart to soar with the ups and downs of the Middle Ages.
Next to the Church of Our Lady
Inside the Church of Our Lady
Although the Church of Our Lady has many features, it does not make me look too far, after all, I have seen too many Catholic churches in Europe, and I have seen Michelangelo's works in Italy, but the Sint-Janshospitaal next to the church surprised me. This is the first medieval hospital I have ever seen in Europe, and its attic is made of one of the oldest and most monumental roof support structures in Europe. Built in the mid-12th century, St. John's Hospital is more than a century older than the Church of Our Lady, and the wards, pharmacies and annex chapels house a large collection of triptychs, wood and stone carvings, furniture and medical instruments, as well as six top works by the famous Flemish painter Hans Memling, which today has been converted into a museum.
St. John's Hospital
Not far from two medieval buildings is Bruges' oldest cathedral, St. Salvatorskathedraal, which existed as the main church of Bruges after its cathedral was razed to the ground by Napoleon. This Gothic-style church, which retains some Romanesque architectural elements, was destroyed by 4 fires and the French Revolution, and is now a museum, but it is closed. It is said that the interior of the church houses a large collection of works and furniture and daily necessities by Flemish painters, as well as the remains of saints, the seats of the organ chants built in the 17th century and the tapestries of the 18th century. Unlike the Bell Tower of Notre Dame Cathedral, the bell tower here is Romanesque, and the tower has five small minarets, which makes it look beautiful and majestic.
In Bruges, where the "wind" prevailed in the Middle Ages, there was also a famous church, which was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The church is named after the 12th-century Crusades that brought back the Holy Blood of Jesus, which was placed on the altar of the church, and it was similarly closed on Christmas Eve. Although the church in the corner next to the Town Hall of Bruges is small, Chinese often say: "The mountain is not high, there are immortals and spirits". Because it houses holy relics and is the only church in the world that preserves the "Holy Blood", it has a high status among Catholic churches and is a holy place for Catholics to worship. Every year on the day of Jesus' Ascension, crystal vases containing holy blood are removed from the shrine and placed on a special holy blood shelf, held by priests and paraded through the streets of Bruges.
Cathedral of St. Saviour
Church of the Holy Blood
The first thing to pass through during the parade is the Grand Place next to it, which is the heart of Bruges. The trade route to various places in those days began to radiate outward from here, and it was also the highest appearance place in the movie "Killer No Holiday". In the middle of the square, there are statues of the two leaders in the "Bruges Morning Prayer", and the square is surrounded by houses with stepped roofs like Christmas ginger candy cookies, which are the classic architectural style of Flemish. Among these classic buildings are the post office, the library, the City Hall, and the Belfry of Bruges. The cream-yellow Gothic building of the 13th-century town hall is beautifully decorated on the outside, showing the brilliance of Bruges, once the richest and most prosperous city in Europe. The wooden dome ceiling and twelve frescoes recreating the historical scenes of Bruges on the first floor are spectacular, while the Gothic hall on the second floor, decorated with a large number of ornate wood carvings, is the essence of the town hall, which exhibits frescoes and stained porcelain from the late 19th century, as well as authentic documents and works of art. Because of its internal and external heritage, this town hall has been rated as the most beautiful town hall in the world.
Unfortunately, the town hall was also closed, and I didn't see anything inside. I didn't see the interior of the Bruges Bell Tower, which was designated as a World Heritage Site. Built in the 13th century, this bell tower, a symbol of freedom and power, is the symbol of Bruges. The bell tower is fitted with a bell organ composed of 47 silver row bells, and every 15 minutes a beautiful bell rings from the bell tower, as if to remind people of the historical facts of how people fought against the French army in Bruges more than 700 years ago to defend their rights. It is said that when Napoleon conquered Bruges, the loud bells of the bell tower once drowned out the rumbling of French artillery.
Bruges Square
The hero of "Bruges Morning Prayer"
Bruges Town Hall
Bruges Belfry
Although I didn't see the essence of many of Bruges' classic interiors during the pandemic, walking through its medieval streets and canals, I seem to be able to travel back to a medieval fairy tale in minutes. This Middle Ages is dark in the eyes of historians, but in my eyes it shines like stars. I didn't know how many hours I had been shuttling through the old town of Bruges, and when the night went down, I remembered that I should treat myself well on Christmas Eve, so I searched the Internet for Michelin restaurants. The Internet says two open doors, one at 6:30 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. From the moment I had this idea, my subsequent journey was "trapped" by Michelin, because no Michelin opened. While I was waiting for Michelin to open the door, I walked towards the city gate.
Bruges has a total of four gates, the moat outside the gate is the moat, the entire moat "wrapped" the old city of Bruges, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. I looked at the age-filled city gate of Bruges under the lanterns, listened to the Christmas bells in the distance, and unconsciously the song "How Precious Tonight" floated into my mind: "I look at the remnants of flowers and dance, and I remember the first time I met at the bottom of the flowers." It is difficult to stop hanging down tears, and the stars and moons are hazy. How self-controlling the sorrow is, the sorrow is the same. Let go of your worries, and please cherish more tonight." A thousand sails to see the end of Bruges, please cherish forever.
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