BRUGES HISTORY
Its history is marked by various influences due to economic and cultural exchanges with the rest of Europe. The city of Bruges is without a doubt, the most famous Belgian city in the world, after Brussels. This small city attracts millions of tourists every year who are always impressed by its beauty, its monuments and its works of art but also by its history.
The story of Bruges begins about 2000 years ago and at that time the seaside was very near to city center.
It was a fishing village run by Celtic people. Today when we talk about Celts, we think about Ireland, Scotland, Wales, maybe Brittany in France, but 2000 years ago almost all of Europe was Celtic. We don’t know for certain the name of this original settlement but the main river was already in place. It’s known by its Dutch name “Reie”, which is derived from the Celtic word “Rogia” meaning holy water, so we know that this place was already important back then.
Unfortunately at the same time , in the south of Europe, the power of Rome was growing and in approximately the year 50 BC, we have Julius Caesar stepping onto the scene.
Julius was a very ambitious and very greedy Roman politician. He needed money so he decided to invade Gaul, which is today France and Belgium. Julius Caesar wrote in his memoirs that it was not an easy fight for the Romans. Apparently, people in this particular part of Gaul were the bravest warriors, so it took Romans many years of hard campaigning but eventually they did conquer this area. It led Julius Ceasar to write in his diary “Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae”: “Of all tribes, the Belgians are the bravest”.
The main shopping street in Bruges was 2000 years ago a major Roman road, linking up Roman fortifications in this area with each other. Eventually, the Roman empire collapsed, followed by different groups of barbarians moving here – Germanic people, Franks and eventually Vikings from Scandinavia.
These Vikings were traders and merchants. When they came here and heard this Celtic word “Rogia”, it sounded similar to “Bryghia”, which in old Scandinavian language meant a harbour for ships. So if you put those words together, Rogia and Bryghia, you come up with Bruges or Brugge, that is the origin of the name of our city.
Back then there was a very little village, right here, but it got regularly invaded by the Vikings from Scandinavia, who came from the north, through the North Sea, into a river and onto this land, and they called this place harbour, or Bryghia in their language. Well there we have the origin of the name of this place, because Bryghia would become Brugge: BRUGES.
In the 9th century when here comes the very first count of Flanders, Baldwin the Iron Arm, and Baldwin builds a fortress here to protect the villagers from these Viking raids.
The grounds around this village were too salty for crops, but it was perfect for sheep to graze upon. So we started using their wool and make cloth with it, and we became really good at it. Before long, the Flemish cloth industry became big business here in Bruges and merchants from all over Europe were now coming to Bruges to sell their product and to buy this precious cloth. So now you have to imagine this place being overrun by people from all different nationalities – this can’t be too hard to imagine – all shouting at each other in French, Spanish, German, Italiano.
So we decided we would build them trading halls, a place where they could all do their trade and shout at each other, and they are still here today. Right over there under the belfry: those were our trading halls.
Trade grew fast and more merchants were now coming in to Brugge and soon these cloth halls became too small. This is when Brugge decided to build a new hall of massive proportions and we built it over the river, so that the ships could sail in, unload their goods and sail on. We called them the Water Halls, and for 500 years they were on the main square (where is now the provincial court.
By the end of the 18th century it was no longer being used, so they tore is down, filled up the river and built the provincial court. So this provincial court looks very old, but it’s actually from the 19th century.
So this tiny village had grown into a city and into the most important trading centre of Western Europe. And we had the money pouring in.
Historically, the French king had rights over these territories and he intended to use those rights, so he demanded that Brugge should pay taxes to him. But Brugge: was rich, and powerful and didn’t want these French ruling over us the city,
But the French king persisted and eventually tried to take over Flanders.
In the year 1302, the French king had sent his troops to Bruges to punish the city. It was while all these French troops were gathered here in the city, that the citizens of Bruges thought: now is the time to get rid of these Frenchies once and for all. And so on the morning of the 18th of May, a militia of armed citizens went around the city, knocked on every door and killed every French person they could find.
Over a hundred of French speakers, soldiers as well as wealthy citizens, were slaughtered that night. Of course, this meant war! The French Governor at the time, Jacques de Chatillon, was able to slip out of the city dressed in a monk’s outfit and when he got back to Paris and told the French king of the massacre that had occurred, King Philip became furious and exclaimed “I will give these Flemish peasants a lesson they will never forget!” So he gathered a large army of 8000 of his best men (many of them noblemen on horses, the nightmare of every foot soldier), and marched them to Brugge.
.This battle, in which the French were defeated, became known as the Battle of the Golden Spurs, because the next morning we took 500 golden spurs from the dead French knights and hung them up in one of our churches.
Bruges, view of the Belfry in the Main Square
