Page 105 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Brussels Bruges Ghent & Antwerp

BRUGES  103

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST E Sint-Janshospitaal
Mariastraat 38, 8000 Bruges.
Practical Information Map A4. Open 9:30am–5pm Tue–
Dijver 17, 8000 Bruges. Sun. Closed 1 Jan, 25 Nov. &
Map B4. This site has been occupied
Tel (05) 044 8743. since the 12th century by the
Closed for restoration until 2018. Sint-Janshospitaal, which closed
Transport as a working hospital only in
@ Markt. 1976. During Bruges’s Burgundian
Golden Age in the 15th century, House on the Southern Bridge at
the great painter Hans Memling Minnewater
(c.1430–94) created a number of
Gallery Guide exquisite paintings, commissioned Y Minnewater
Laid out over three floors, the specially for the hospital chapel Map A5–B5.
collection is organized into types in about 1479. The remarkable Just south of the Begijnhof,
of object from glassware, museum here today therefore Minnewater is a peaceful
porcelain and ceramics to has two aspects. First, there are park with a canalized lake.
medical instruments, in a series the evocative medieval hospital There were already swans here
of 22 numbered rooms. wards with antique beds, medical in 1448 when Maximilian of
Visitors may view the rooms instruments, paintings and Austria ordered they be kept in
in sequence from 1 to 22 documentation, as well as an memory of his councillor, Pieter
and get a good sense of the old apotheek (pharmacy). Then, Lanchals, who was beheaded
original uses and layout of in the open-plan site of the old by the Bruges citizens.
the house in doing so. chapel, there is the small but Once this was a bustling
supreme collection of Memling’s harbour which connected to
paintings, including the St the canal network and the
Ursula Shrine, a reliquary sea. It is now a popular spot
painted with scenes from for walkers and picnickers
the legend of St Ursula. who may view the pretty
15th-century lock gate and
R St Salvators-Kathedraal house and the 1398 tower
Steenstraat 1, 8000 Bruges. Map A4. (Poedertoren). There is an
Tel (050) 33 61 88. Open daily. adjoining park which holds
Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec. & music concerts in summer.
Built as a parish church from
the 12th and 15th centuries, P Begijnhof
this large, yellow-brick build ing Wijngaardplein 1, 8000 Bruges. Map
. Chapel became Bruges’ cathedral in A4–A5. Tel (050) 33 00 11. Open daily.
Built in 1472, this oak-panelled 1834 when the French army Beguines were members of a
chapel on the museum’s second destroyed the existing one. The lay sisterhood active between
floor overlooks the high altar interior is enormous and quite the 13th and 16th centuries.
of the church next door. plain except for a handsome set They lived and dressed as nuns
of Brussels’ tapestries hang ing in but did not take vows and
Key to Floorplan the choir, and a 1682 organ were therefore able to return
adorned with angels. to the secular world at will.
Glassware, porcelain and ceramics
The begijnhof or beguinage
Kitchen is the walled com plex in a town
Chapel that housed the beguines. In
Musical instruments Bruges, this is an area of quiet
Coins tree-lined canals faced by white,
gabled houses, with a pleasant
Tapestries
green at its centre. Visitors and
Tools, weights and measures locals enjoy strolling here and
Entrance hall may visit the small, simple
Textiles and lace church which was built in
Household implements 1602. The nuns who live in
the houses are no longer
Renaissance works
beguines, but Benedictine
Baroque works sisters who moved here in the
Reliquary and furniture 1930s. One of the houses is
Medical instruments open to visitors and displays
simple rustic furniture and
Great Hall
Pale brick tower of St Salvators-Kathedraal artifacts that illustrate the
Weaponry
in Bruges women’s contemplative lives.
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