Bruges

The name first appears as Brugis in an inventory of Ghent's Saint Bavo's Abbey compiled between 851 and 864, and probably comes from the Scandinavian bryggja, a quay or jetty. Viking raids in the ninth century led Count Baldwin I of Flanders to strengthen the old Roman fortifications, and as rival harbours declined Bruges filled the gap in trade with England and the Baltic. It received its city charter on 27 July 1128, and a storm in 1134 opened a natural channel to the sea at the Zwin, the "Golden Inlet" on which its fortune rested.

At its height Bruges stood at the crossroads of Hanseatic and southern trade. The Hanseatic League kept a kontor here, a bourse opened in 1309 that was most likely the world's first stock exchange, and the city's weavers were thought to be the best in the world; by about 1350 at least 46,000 people lived here. In the 15th century Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, kept a court here, and Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling lived and worked in the city.

From about 1500 the Zwin silted up and the golden age ended. Bruges briefly came under Protestant rule in 1578, fell behind Antwerp after 1584 and turned to lace-making in the 17th century. In the second half of the 19th century it became one of the world's first tourist destinations, drawing wealthy British and French visitors, and Georges Rodenbach made it a character in his novel Bruges-la-Morte of 1892. The port of Zeebrugge opened in 1907, the city absorbed its surrounding municipalities in 1971, and the historic centre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

The city's culture rests on the painters who worked here in the 15th century. Van Eyck and Memling are the pride of its museums, the Groeningemuseum covers six centuries of Flemish painting, and the old St John's Hospital keeps Memling's triptychs where they were made to hang. Michelangelo's marble Madonna and Child stands in the Church of Our Lady. Lace-making, which took off in the 17th century, remains a symbol of the city, and a lace school still teaches the craft.

Religious and civic pageantry is part of the calendar. Each Ascension Day the relic of the Holy Blood, said to have been brought back after the Second Crusade by Thierry of Alsace, is carried in a procession of more than 1,600 participants, many dressed as knights and crusaders. Every five years the Pageant of the Golden Tree, created in 1958, recalls the tournament held on the Markt in 1468 for the wedding of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York. The Concertgebouw, built when Bruges was European Capital of Culture in 2002, and the Cactus music centre lead its music life.

People here speak West Flemish, a dialect that other Dutch speakers can find hard to follow; the residents are called Bruggelingen. Football matters: Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge both play in the top division and share the Jan Breydel Stadium.

About 120,000 people live in the city of Bruges, only some 20,000 of them in the historic centre; the rest are spread across the suburbs and villages merged into it in 1971, as far as Zeebrugge on the coast. In 2017 about 5 per cent of residents held a foreign nationality.

Tourism is a huge part of the economy, with some eight million visitors a year, and in summer the streets between the Markt, the Burg and the beguinage are given over to them. The port of Bruges-Zeebrugge is the other main source of work and one of the city's great economic assets, and the College of Europe, a university institute for European studies, brings students from across the continent. Universities of applied sciences such as VIVES and HOWEST add a younger population.

Ordinary life goes on around the edges of the visitor trade. The Wednesday market fills the Markt and the Saturday market fills 't Zand each morning of those days, residents cycle everywhere, and the streets around the Eiermarkt and 't Zand are where local people go out at night. There are plans for a new stadium of about 45,000 seats for Club Brugge in the north of the city.

Bruges presents itself as a chocolate city. It has a large number of chocolatiers, a chocolate museum, Choco-Story, and its own official city praline, the Brugsch Swaentje. Belgian fries are sold from frietkoten across the city, traditionally in a paper cone with mayonnaise on top, and there is even a museum devoted to them.

Beer is the other local pride. Many beers carry the city's name — Brugge Tripel, Brugse Babbelaar and others — but only Brugse Zot and Brugse Straffe Hendrik are brewed in the city itself, at the De Halve Maan brewery in the old town, and beer cafés and shops are found across the centre. Bruges restaurants serve the Flemish classics: carbonade flamande, also called stoofvlees or stoverij, a beef stew made with beer and mustard and often served with fries; moules-frites, mussels cooked with onions and celery and served with fries; and grey shrimp, stuffed into tomatoes or folded into croquettes.

The Markt and 't Zand hold many tearooms, where waffles and cakes come with coffee. The restaurants on the Markt itself are priced for the view, and a few streets away there are cheaper places used by local people.