The square building on either side of the Belfry, known as Les Halles, was erected in or about 1248, and is a fine but sombre specimen of Early Gothic civic architecture. The wing to the left was originally the Cloth Hall, for the display and sale of the woollen manufactures of Ghent and Bruges. It is now used as municipal offices. A door to the L. gives access to a small Museum of Antiquities on the ground floor, which may be safely neglected by all save specialist archæologists. (Admission 50 c.) The wing to the right is the meat market.
Now, stand with your back to the Belfry to survey the Square. The brick building on your right is the Post Office (modern); the stone one beyond it (also modern) is the Palace of the Provincial Government of Flanders. Both have been erected in a style suitable to the town. In the Middle Ages, ships could come up to this part of the Grand’ Place to discharge their cargo. The quaint houses that face you, with high-pitched gable-ends, are partly modern, but mostly old, though restored. On the left (W.) side of the Place, at the corner of the Rue St. Amand, stands the square castle-like building known as Au Lion de Flandre and marked by its gold lion. It is one of the best brick mediæval buildings in Bruges. According to a doubtful tradition, it was occupied by Charles II. of England during his exile, when he was created by the Brugeois King of the Crossbowmen of St. Sebastian (see later). In the house beside it, known as the Craenenburg, the citizens of Bruges imprisoned Maximilian, King of the Romans, from the 5th to the 17th of February, 1488, because he would not grant the care of his son Philip, heir to the crown of the Netherlands, to the King of France. They only released him after he had sworn before an altar erected at the spot, on the Host, the true Cross, and the Relics of St. Donatian, to renounce his claim to the guardianship of his son, and to grant a general amnesty. However, he was treacherously released from his oath by a congress of Princes convened a little later by his father, the Emperor Frederic IV.
From the corner of the Post Office, take the short Rue Breydel to the Place du Bourg, the still more intimate centre and focus of the early life of Bruges. This Place contained the old Palace of the Counts of Flanders, and the original Cathedral, both now destroyed, as well as the Town Hall and other important buildings still preserved for us.
The tallest of the three handsome edifices on the S. side of the Square (profusely adorned with sculpture) is the **Hôtel de Ville, a beautiful gem of Middle Gothic architecture, begun about 1376, and finished about 1387. This is one of the finest pieces of civic architecture in Belgium. The façade, though over-restored, and the six beautiful turrets and chimneys, are in the main of the original design. The sculpture in the niches, destroyed during the French Revolution, has been only tolerably replaced by modern Belgian sculptors in our own day. The lower tier contains the Annunciation, R. and L. of the doorway, with figures of various saints and prophets. In the tiers above this are statues of the Counts of Flanders of various ages. The reliefs just below the windows of the first floor represent episodes from Biblical history: – David before Saul, David dancing before the Ark, the Judgment of Solomon, the Building of Solomon’s Temple, and other scenes which the visitor can easily identify. The Great Hall in the interior is interesting only for its fine pendant Gothic wooden roof.
The somewhat lower building, to the right of the Hôtel de Ville, is the **Chapelle du Saint Sang. The decorated portal round the corner also forms part of the same building.
[In the 12th and 13th centuries (age of the Crusades) the chivalrous and credulous knights of the North and West who repaired to the Holy Land, whether as pilgrims or as soldiers of the Faith, were anxious to bring back with them relics of the saints or of still more holy personages. The astute Greeks and Syrians with whom they had to deal rose to the occasion, and sold the simple Westerns various sacred objects of more or less doubtful authenticity at fabulous prices. Over these treasured deposits stately churches were often raised; for example, St. Louis of France constructed the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, to contain the Crown of Thorns and part of the True Cross, which he had purchased at an immense cost from Baldwin, Emperor of Constantinople. Among the earlier visitors to the Holy Land who thus signalised their journey was Theodoric of Alsace, elected Count of Flanders in 1128; he brought back with him in 1149 some drops of the Holy Blood of the Saviour, said to have been preserved by Joseph of Arimathea, which he presented to his faithful city of Bruges. Fitly to enshrine them, Theodoric erected a chapel in the succeeding year, 1150; and this early church forms the lower floor of the existing building. Above it, in the 15th century, when Bruges grew richer, was raised a second and more gorgeous chapel (as at the Sainte Chapelle), in which the holy relic is now preserved. Almost all the works of art in the dainty little oratory accordingly bear special reference to the Holy Blood, its preservation, and its transport to Bruges. The dedication is to St. Basil, the founder of eastern monasticism – a Greek Father little known in the West, whose fame Theodoric must have learned in Syria. The nobles of Flanders, it must be remembered, were particularly active in organising the Crusades.]
The exterior has a fine figure of St. Leonard (holding the fetters which are his symbol) under a Gothic niche. He was the patron of Christian slaves held in duress by the Saracens. The beautiful flamboyant portal and staircase, round the corner, erected in 1529-1533, in the ornate decorative style of the period, have (restored) figures of Crusaders and their Queens in niches, with incongruous Renaissance busts below.
To visit the interior, ring the bell in the corner: admission, 50 c. per person.
The Museum of the Brotherhood of the Holy Blood, on the first floor, which we first visit, contains by the left wall the handsome silver-gilt Reliquary (of 1617), studded with jewels, which encloses the drops of the Holy Blood. The figures on it represent Christ (the source of the Blood), the Blessed Virgin, St. Basil (patron of the church), and St. Donatian (patron of the town). The Blood is exhibited in a simpler châsse in the chapel every Friday; that is to say, on the day of the Crucifixion. The great Reliquary itself is carried in procession only, on the Monday after the 3rd of May. Right and left of the châsse are portraits of the members of the Confraternity of the Holy Blood by P. Pourbus, 1556: unusually good works of this painter. A triptych to the right, by an unknown master of the early 16th century, figures the Crucifixion, with special reference to the Holy Blood, representing St. Longinus in the act of piercing the side of Christ (thus drawing the Blood), with the Holy Women and St. John in attendance; on the wings, the Way to Calvary, and the Resurrection.
Between the windows is a curious chronological picture of the late 15th century, representing the History of Our Lady in the usual stages, with other episodes. To the R. of it, a painting of the 15th century shows Count Theodoric receiving the Holy Blood from his brother-in-law, Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, and the bringing of the Holy Blood to Bruges.
On the right wall there is a famous *triptych by Gerard David (the finest work here), representing the Deposition in the Tomb, with the Maries, St. John, Nicodemus, and an attendant holding a dish to contain the Holy Blood, which is also seen conspicuously flowing from the wounds; the left wing shows the Magdalen with Cleophas; the right wing, the preservation of the Crown of Thorns by Joseph of Arimathea. The portrait character of the faces is admirable: stand long and study this fine work.
The original designs for the windows of the Chapel are preserved in a glass case by the window; behind which are fragments of early coloured glass; conspicuous among them, St. Barbara with her tower.
On the exit wall is a fine piece of late Flemish tapestry, representing the bringing of the body of St. Augustine to Pavia, with side figures