Description: Bruges is a beautiful city and for lovers of history there is something literally on every corner. For architecture buffs the two main squares in the city offer the most impressive buildings and whilst the larger Market Square may have more of them the more intimate Burg Square has in my opinion the more impressive ones.
The Stadhuis or Town Hall as it is more commonly known in English is my favourite building in all of Bruges purely from an aesthetic point of view.
Built in 1300’s this impressive gothic marvel is a reminder of Bruges bygone Golden Age and has been wonderfully preserved over the years and remains in use as a functional seat of local government to this day.
It is of course also open to tourists who can go in and admire the preserved hall and find out more about the history of the building and about Bruges in general.
The outside of the building really is impressive and there is so much to catch the eye. I love architecture with my favourite style being gothic so the Stadhuis was one of my first ports of call.
On the outside of the building there are several niches with statues built into them. Most of the guidebooks tell you what these statues are and what they represent. The statues look authentic but are actually modern reproductions as the original statues that adorned the building were torn down and destroyed during the French Revolution.
Although there was lots of talk about who deserved a place on the façade the council eventually decided to stick with the original sovereigns and biblical figures. The last statue was laid in 1989 and it is the first time in the history of the building that all the niches now have statues.
Once you have admired the outside of the building you can visit the inside for a small fee. The lower floors of the Stadhuis are actually free and you only have to pay to visit the hall upstairs and the small museum.
On the ground floor of the Stadhuis there is an information desk and several large paintings depicting famous characters from Bruges history. They are interesting to look at but I personally have never been all that interested in old portrait paintings. For people who like that style of art then the fact it is free is a nice bonus and there is a lot packed in to the smallish space. It is only the main entrance hall where people can visit for free as the rest of the ground floor is taken up by administration rooms where the local government actually sits in council.
The main attraction of the Stadhuis is the medieval gothic hall upstairs. To visit this costs 2.50 Euros which I thought was a very reasonable price and something which I would recommend that you do as it is well worth seeing.
The information desk has self-guided tours which are included in the entrance to the hall and these are worth having as they explain what everything in the hall is. Using the guides is easy and just involves putting it to your ear and pressing the corresponding number on the artwork that you want to know more about. The level of detail that the guides give is impressive and they tell you everything that you could possibly want to know about the hall and its decoration.
When you first walk into the hall it is certainly impressive due to its vaulted ceiling and lavish decoration and it gives a good idea of just how wealthy Bruges must have been in its heyday. The level of detail is so impressive that even those people who aren’t really into buildings and architecture can’t fail to be impressed with it.
There is lots of gold paint as would be expected and the level of detail in the murals would put a lot of painters to shame. Although I don’t normally like old portraits and landscapes I actually enjoyed seeing these ones as every one of them told a story about the city and its history and I enjoyed listening to the guide to find out more about them. Looking about the hall I did have to wonder about the people who designed it and the time and imagination it must have taken to complete it.
Adjacent to the hall is a small museum and when I say small I mean tiny. It is just one room and it contains artefacts from the city from its golden age. They were interesting enough to look at for a couple of minutes but there was nothing particularly striking in this part of the building that warranted more than a passing glance. Besides I had no idea what most of it actually was as the descriptions to the items was all in Dutch with no English descriptions accompanying them. To be honest even if there had been English descriptions I doubt that I would have bothered spending any more time there as it was all just a bit stuffy and dull.
After visiting the hall we made our way back down the stairs and had another look around the ground entrance hall. With the accompanying guide I was much more interested in seeing the portraits that adorn the walls as the guide did a lot more than just tell me who the people were, it also delved into their history and as to why they were actually important to the city and what they had done during their lifetimes.
We only spent about an hour in the Stadhuis as there isn’t all that much to see. The public parts of the building are pretty much restricted to the entrance hall and the stunning gothic one upstairs. I discount the small museum as that only took a couple of seconds to look round. Had it not been for the self-guides then I doubt we would have spent even 20 minutes looking around as once you have admired the hall there isn’t a lot more to see but with the guides it really expanded it and turned it into more of a learning experience of the history of the city which I really did find fascinating.
I’m glad we went and for the price I cannot fault it as the small entrance fee is worth every penny to be able to go upstairs and admire the gothic splendour of the hall. Because the downstairs is free anyway then I would recommend that you pop in but make sure that you get yourself the free guide to enhance the experience.
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