Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in Belgium. The predominant language is Dutch (West Flemish).
The area of the whole city amounts to more than 14,099 hectares (140.99 km2; 54.44 sq. miles), including 1,075 hectares off the coast, at Zeebrugge (from ,, Snippet pages 143 meaning 'Bruges by the Sea')., page 140 The historic city center is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval and about 430 hectares in size. The city's total population is 117,073 (1 January 2008).Statistics Belgium; Population de droit par commune au 1 janvier 2008 (excel-file) Population of all municipalities in Belgium, as of 1 January 2008. Retrieved on 19 October 2008. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008.Statistics Belgium; De Belgische Stadsgewesten 2001 (pdf-file) Definitions of metropolitan areas in Belgium. The metropolitan area of Bruges is divided into three levels. First, the central agglomeration (), which in this case is Bruges municipality, with 117,073 inhabitants (1 January 2008). Adding the closest surroundings () gives a total of 166,502. And, including the outer commuter zone () the population is 255,844. Retrieved on 19 October 2008.
Along with a few other canal-based northern cities, such as Amsterdam and Saint Petersburg, it is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North. Bruges has significant economic importance, thanks to its port, and was once one of the world's chief commercial cities. It is a major tourist destination within Belgium and is well-known as the seat of the College of Europe, a university institute for European studies.
Toponymy The earliest mention of the location's name is as in the , an inventory of the Saint Bavo's Abbey compiled between 851-864 AD. The name , , or appears on coins minted between 864–875. This name resembles the Old Dutch for 'bridge': , the Middle Dutch or and modern Dutch ('bridge'), but it is more likely derived from the Scandinavian 'Bryggja' which means 'Quay' or 'Jetty'.
Afterwards, it appears as and (892); as (late ninth century); as (); as (1012); as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1037); as (1046); as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1049–1052); as (1072); as (1080–1085); as (); as (1089); and as (1116).Maurits Gysseling, Toponymisch woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland (vóór 1226), Brussel 1960, p. 195.
History
Origins Bruges was a location of coastal settlement during prehistory. This Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement are unrelated to medieval city development. In the Bruges area, the first fortifications were built after Julius Caesar's conquest of the Menapii in the first century BC, to protect the coastal area against pirates. The Franks took over the whole region from the Gallo-Romans around the fourth century and administered it as the Pagus Flandrensis. The Viking incursions of the ninth century prompted Count Baldwin I of Flanders to reinforce the Roman fortifications. Whilst the Viking raids led to the decline of Dorestad, Quentovic and Domburg as harbors for trade with England, the Baltic Sea area and Scandinavia, Bruges was able to fill that gap. Early medieval habitation starts in the ninth and tenth centuries on the Burgh terrain, probably with a fortified settlement and church. Bruges gained some fame as destination for pilgrimage, when the relics of Saint Donatian of Reims were brought to the town and venerated in the St. Donatian's church. Saint Donatian became the patron saint of Bruges.
Golden age (12th–15th centuries) In 1089, Bruges became the capital of the County of Flanders. Bruges received its city charter on 27 July 1128, and new walls and canals were built. By the 12th century, the city had gained an autonomous administration. Het Zwin (Golden Inlet), the tidal inlet of Bruges, was crucial to the development of local commerce. Since about 1050, gradual silting had caused the city to lose its direct access to the sea. A storm in 1134, however, re-established this access, through the creation of a natural channel at the Zwin. The new sea arm stretched to Damme, a city that became the commercial outpost for Bruges.
Bruges had a strategic location at the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic League trade, who had a kontor in the city, and the southern trade routes. Bruges was already included in the circuit of the Flemish and French cloth fairs at the beginning of the 13th century, but when the old system of fairs broke down, the entrepreneurs of Bruges innovated. They developed, or borrowed from Italy, new forms of merchant capitalism, whereby several merchants would share the risks and profits and pool their knowledge of markets. They employed new forms of economic exchange, including bills of exchange (i.e. promissory notes) and letters of credit. The city eagerly welcomed foreign traders, most notably the Portuguese traders selling pepper and other spices.
With the reawakening of town life in the 12th century, a wool market, a woolens weaving industry, and the cloth market all profited from the shelter of city walls, where surpluses could be safely accumulated under the patronage of the counts of Flanders. The city's entrepreneurs reached out to make economic colonies of England and Scotland's wool-producing districts. English contacts brought Normandy grain and Gascon wines. Hanseatic ships filled the harbor, which had to be expanded beyond Damme to Sluys to accommodate the new cog-ships.
In 1277, the first merchant fleet from the Republic of Genoa appeared in the port of Bruges, the first of the merchant colony that made Bruges the main link to the trade of the Mediterranean. This development opened not only the trade in spices from the Levant but also advanced commercial and financial techniques and a flood of capital that soon took over the banking of Bruges. The building where the Genoese Republic housed its commercial representation in the city still survives, now housing the Frietmuseum.
The Bourse opened in 1309 (most likely the first stock exchange in the world) and developed into the most sophisticated money market of the Low Countries in the 14th century. By the time Venetian galleys first appeared, in 1314, they were latecomers.Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, in Vol. III Civilization and Capitalism, 1984 Numerous foreign merchants were welcomed in Bruges, such as the Castilian wool merchants who first arrived in the 13th century. After the Castilian wool monopoly ended, the Basques, many hailing from Bilbao (Biscay), thrived as merchants (wool, iron commodities, etc.) and established their own commercial consulate in Bruges by the mid-15th century. The foreign merchants expanded the city's trading zones. They maintained separate communities governed by their own laws until the economic collapse after 1700.
Such wealth gave rise to social upheavals, which were for the most part harshly contained by the militia. In 1302, however, after the Bruges Matins (the night-time massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by the members of the local Flemish militia on 18 May 1302), the population joined forces with the Count of Flanders against the French, culminating in the victory at the Battle of the Golden Spurs, fought near Kortrijk on 11 July. The statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, the leaders of the uprising, can still be seen on the Big Market square. The city maintained a militia as a permanent paramilitary body. It gained flexibility and high prestige through close ties to a guild of the organized militia, comprising professionals and specialized units. Militia men bought and maintained their own weapons and armor, according to their family status and wealth. Later, Bruges would be consumed in the Flemish revolts that occurred around the County of Flanders between 1323 and 1328. The weavers and spinners of Bruges were thought to be the best in the world, and the population of Bruges grew to at least 46,000 inhabitants at this time around 1350 AD.De Brugse stadsmagistraat in de late 14e eeuw - Een prosopografische studie voor de periode 1359-1375 At the end of the 14th century, Bruges became one of the Four Members, along with Brugse Vrije, Ghent, and Ypres. Together they formed a parliament; however, they frequently quarreled amongst themselves.Philip the Good: the apogee of Burgundy by Richard Vaughan, p201
In the 15th century, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, set up a court in Bruges, as well as Brussels and Lille, attracting several artists, bankers, and other prominent personalities from all over Europe. The new oil-painting techniques of the Flemish school gained world renown. The first book in English ever printed was published in Bruges by William Caxton. Edward IV and Richard III of England were then living in exile in Bruges.
Decline after 1500
Starting around 1500, the Zwin channel, (the Golden Inlet) which had given the city its prosperity, began silting up and the Golden Era ended. In the 16th century, Bruges was a centre of humanism and Protestantism,Decavele, Johan (12 August 2004). De stede van Brugghe es argher dan Genève. Fray Lorenço de Villavicencio, een Spaanse spion, ketterjager en onheilsprofeet in de Zwinstad. (in Dutch) in De eerste protestanten van de Lage Landen, 2004, p. 141–158 with international ramifications.Decavele, Johan (15 September 2013). Protestantse invloeden in Brugge in het midden van de 16de eeuw. Een internationaal netwerk. (in Dutch) in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Kerkgeschiedenis, 16, 2013, p. 6–23. In 1578, the city briefly came under Protestant rule. The execution of three Franciscan friars on the Burg caused a great stir.Decavele, Johan (1993). Brugse en Gentse Mendicanten op de brandstapel in 1578 (kopie). in Beleid en bestuur. Liber Amicorum Prof. dr. Michel Baelde, 1993. The secession of the Spanish Netherlands in 1584 led to the city's final decline, which soon fell behind Antwerp as the economic flagship of the Low Countries.
During the 17th century, the lace industry took off, and various efforts to bring back the glorious past were made. During the 1650s, the city was the base for Charles II of England and his court in exile. The maritime infrastructure was modernized, and new connections with the sea were built, but without much success, as Antwerp became increasingly dominant. Bruges became impoverished and gradually faded in importance.
19th century and later revival In the second half of the 19th century, Bruges became one of the world's first tourist destinations, attracting wealthy British and French tourists. By 1909, the 'Bruges Forward: Society to Improve Tourist' association had come into operation.
The symbolist novelist George Rodenbach made the city into a character in his novel Bruges-la-Morte, meaning "Bruges-the-dead", which was adapted into Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera, Die tote Stadt (The Dead City).
In World War I, German forces occupied Bruges. However, despite being a base for the Flanders U-boat flotilla, the city suffered virtually no damage, and was liberated on 19 October 1918 by the Allies. The city was occupied by the Germans from 1940 during World War II and was again spared destruction. On 12 September 1944, it was liberated by the 12th Manitoba Dragoons' Canadian troops. The liberation of the city was facilitated by the bridge, now known as the , connecting the outer municipalities with the city centre.