A Hermetic Tour of Bruges

part 1 - The anecdotical past 

By borsky

A concise description of the first part of the tour

1. Smedenpoort (Gate of the blacksmiths)

Just outside of the gate there was once one of the ‘Galgevelden’, the field of gallows with all the scaffolds for the hanged. The external facade shows the coat-of-arms of Bruges with a lion and a bear. The bear has to do with the legend of Baldwin with the iron arm, which we’ll see at the end of the tour, and the lion came to us through a victory during the Crusades on an Armenian king, whose flag showed a black lion. The inside facade shows the little bronze head of Frans van de Straeten, a patrician who wanted to deliver the town to the French in 1688. He was decapitated, torn apart, and his limbs were displayed at every gate.Here his head was put on a spike. Later on the remains of the head were replaced by an iron one, which was taken away when the French returned in 1792 (and which is displayed today in the Gruuthuuse city Museum); this one has been put back in 1946.

2. Kreupelenstraat (street of the crippled)

In the Middle Ages there were groups of houses for the poor in almost every street in Bruges, called ‘Godshuizen’ (‘Houses of God’). The gate of Godshuis ‘Blindekens’ here shows a border stone with the symbol of a dagger which stood for the limits of Bruges jurisdiction. This meant that whoever passed this gate couldn’t be pursued by the police. Every ‘Godshuis’ was built for a specific category of sick or poor people. This one was for the blind. We walk through the passageway between a house and the ‘OLV van de Blindekens’ (‘Our Lady of the Blind Church) and arrive in the Kammakerstraat (street of the comb-makers) where two other Godshuizen are situated. Every year since the 15th of August 1304 and because of a vow been made at the battle of Pevelenberg against the French, a procession takes place , the ‘Blindekensprocessie’ starting from here towards the Potterierei. This is one of the eldest still existing processions. Each time a large candle is burned to thank for the safe return of the soldiers.

3. Zand nr 4, The House of the pious executioner.

This facade was rebuild in 1921, but originally it was the house of the Lord Executioner. Murderers were executed in public on a field behind these houses. The sentence was executed by an officially appointed judge, the ‘scherprechter’ or ‘hangeman’. From 1509 til 1536 Wissel Geerts van Utrecht was the Lord Executioner of Bruges. Paradoxically, being a very pious and friendly man he was loved by the populace. He used to visit the condemned in their cells to try to cheer them up and bring them spiritual comfort before torturing them or worse. When on the scaffold he prayed on his knees and asked forgiveness for the executed and used part of his fee to pay for a mass for their souls afterwards. Then he beheaded them with a sword or burned them alive. He took care of the heretics and thieves as well, torturing them, cutting off an ear or a hand, stigmatising them with firemarks, all in a very friendly and pious manner… he walked from the ‘Vrijdagsmarkt’ (‘Friday market’) as it was called here to the ‘Burg’ or to the central ‘Markt’ when patricians or noblemen were executed, or to one of the gallow fields outside of the city where the poor were hanged. When not working on the scaffold or in the cells he usually was praying in Saint Saviour’s church. The executioner was one of the best paid civil servants, with extras for every execution or torture. He also was the appointed dog catcher. And he had the right to ask a tax on the selling of pig and chicken meat, eggs, straw and wood on the market in front of his house. When he lived here, the stream the ‘Rei’ was passing here and at the end of the ‘Noordzandstraat’ was a bridge upon which an older gate was build; his house was part of the original gate. Later on the stream was filled with sand to create the current very large market place, hence the name “ ‘t Zand”.
‘t Zand used to be a large sand flat. in the 19th century the railway station was build here. Nowadays in the middle there’s a large group of fountains, sculpted by a couple of artists. The four main groups depict scenes from Bruges’ past: four women symbolize the main cities of Antwerp, Ghent, Kortrijk and Bruges; the fishermen show the historical bonds with the sea; another grop symbolizes the rural polders surrounding the city and finally a group of cyclists show amongst them the folk characters of Tijl Uilenspiegel and his spouse Nele.

4. Speelmansreitje (street of the musicians)

The ‘Speelmanskapel’ was originally a chapel for musicians. Today it’s the humanist center, as it was desacralised years ago. Strangely this house of atheism still bears one of the numerous madonna statuettes at one of its corners, as those are protected by the monument department of the city. At the opposite is the masonic lodge “La Flandre” built in 1881. Before that other lodges were at the same location. From the side it is possible to imagine the size of the temple inside. In the distance further up the Wulfshagestraat one can see the top of Saint Saviours’ Cathedral.

5. Beenhouwersstraat (‘butcher’s street’)

This part of Bruges is called ‘Bloedput’ which means pit of blood. Here was a large well used to collect blood from all the medicinal bleedings in the entire town. the facade of a neogothic house shows the two saint patrons of the surgeons, the 3rd century’s twins Cosmas (Cosimo) and Damian. Those two healers were active in Syria, were horribly grilled but didn’t abandon their faith, and were beheaded together with their three younger brothers. Later on the imagery of the same sanctified twins shall be used in a Templar context.

6.Wulfhagestraat nr 37

Coat of arms of ‘Brouwerij de Sleutels’. Once there were 54 breweries in Bruges. One could write the entire history of Bruges based on its beer tradition, linking it to the merchants, the bankers and the Lords of the ‘Gruute’, the herbs used for brewing, about which more shall be told when passing next to the ‘Gruuthuuse’ museum. In the Noordzandstraat between the bridge and the Dweersstraat is a statue of the Holy Virgin with brewers, yet again one of the many breweries that existed from the 15th till the 17th century in Bruges

7. Dweersstraat (dweers, old Dutch for perpendicular)

A poem in stone by the most famous Flemish priest-poet Guido Gezelle used to tell how the Holy Blood relic was hidden here in 1812 after the French invasion. Sadly the stone has since been hidden. On nr 20 of this street is the narrowest facade of town, just the width of a door.

8. Lendestraat : The house of the witch.

At the numbers 4 and 2 of this narrow street there used to be two small houses that were destroyed in the 18th century. Number 4 was rented to a Mayken Karrebrouck, who was accused of witchcraft in 1633 by her neighbour Marie Padieu who owned the little school in number 2. We don’t know if the ‘mascarons’ on the new facade refer to the short but violent witchhunt which took place in Bruges from 1633 till 1636. It was probably the result of many years of suffering, which started in 1631 when the prince of Orange appeared with a huge army at the gates, while the Spanish army came from the other side and Bruges was smashed between hammer and anvil. No actual battle was fought but for a long time the populace of Bruges lived in fear it might happen. Then the pest appeared in 1632 and some harvests were lost because of the extreme climate. People were scared and frustrated, so culprits were needed. Everyone believed in magick in those times, so did poor Mayken Karrebrouck who survived selling butter and milk at the market. She was known for her secret knowledge of herbs and sold amulets with written spells. She used to help a lot of people, yet she became known as a witch. People needed her kind but any mistake was due to be heavily punished. One day a girl in her neighbours school became ill and Mayken was accused of having put a curse on her. It was said the girl had a fit every time Maykens dog barked. After her arrest all the people in the neighborhood who had been helped with herbal remedies accused her. Under horrible torture, together with her son, at the city prison the ‘Steen’ in the Steenstraat she gave away several names of her colleague witchdoctors. It was said that during her interrogation a bat entered the torture cellar and all the judges thought this was a child of the devil watching over her. The last witches were burned in Bruges in 1636.

9. Zuidzandstraat

The apothicary ‘Den Cleynen Thems’ at the corner is the oldest in Flanders, it dates back to 1696. Behind the corner is café ‘Lokkedizze’ at the highest point of Bruges (at about only 2 meters above sea level, it goes to show how flat Flanders is)

10. St Salvatorskathedraal (Saint Saviour’s Cathedral)

The two towers
Somewhere around 660, two large churches depending from two concurring parishes were build simultaneously near each other: here a church was build for the St Elooi parish to keep the relics of St Eloy, and nearby the ‘OLVkerk’ (Virgin Mary church) for the Lissewege parish. At that time Bruges didn’t exist as a town yet, so both churches showed the limits of the two competing parishes.
The first church here burned down in 1116 and was rebuild that year in roman style (still visible for the lower 15 m of the walls). This one burned down in 1183 and was rebuild in the gothic fashion upon the ruins of the previous one. This one burned down in 1358 and was rebuild in the actual style in 1478. It was ransacked in 1580, sold under the French occupation in 1799 to the parishioners and became a cathedral in 1834. The tower burned down in 1839 and was rebuilt yet again. Its gigantic proportions (90 meters) might remind of Barad-dûr in the Lord of the Rings!
In the distance through the H. Geeststraat one can see the slimmer but even higher (122 meters!) Virgin Mary Church, where the famous Pieta of Michelangelo can be seen. This church was bought by masonic baron de Diepenhede-Coppieters after the French revolution, and hence protected from destruction; the statue of Michelangelo, taken by the sans-culottes, was brought back later by some masonic brethren. Because of the muddy nature of Bruges soil, originally a land of marshes, al large building were build upon an immense first layer of donkey skins.

11. St Salvatorskerkhof (the St. Saviour’s cemetary)

The cemetary itself is long gone. When the central burial place of Bruges was overcrowded, the corpses piling up on one another, nobody even bothered to dig holes anymore. Because of the pestilence and the dangers for the populace, it was shut down and under heavy protesting by the citizens, all the remains were taken away to a mass grave outside the city.
At the corner of the Steenstraat, 7 symbols for the days of the week are displayed, lnking them to the seven main planets and seven Greek gods: Sun (sunday), Diana (monday), Mars (tuesday), Mercurius (wednesday), Jupiter (thursday), Venus (friday) and Saturnus (saturday). More importantly it might hint to the alchemical tradition in Bruges. The seven planets were the seven stations involved in the ‘Work’, and the seven spheres above the four unpure elements earth - water - air and fire, through which the purified soul had to travel and pass tests, until after the hardest level, that one of Saturnus, it reached the level of the ‘fixed stars’ and the zodiac, and finally the ‘Primum Mobile’ which touched the lowest parts of Paradise.

12. Kemelstraat (Camel street)

In this small street, Bruges most famous café Brugs Beertje (a ‘bruine kroeg’ selling hundreds of different beers) and two restaurants, the Tolkien and the Hobbit are competing for their dedication to Tolkien.

13. Simon Stevinplein : The Pixy sacrilege

Simon Stevin was a humanist mathematician who wrote his treatises in Dutch instead of Latin, in order to give the ordinary people an opportunity to read his theories.
At number 19, until 1700 there used to be an inn called ‘Het Witte Peerd’, the White Horse. At that time there was no market here (which only came in 1821) but a large butchery surrounded by many inns. This inn was destroyed because a terrible sacrilege took place.
In 1700 Guillaume Van Lee went to the St. Saviour’s church and stole the silver box (called a ‘pyxis’) keeping the hosts in the sacristy. Before leaving town he stayed a night in the ‘Witte Peerd’ and flushed the contents of the pyxis down the toilet. Het went to the town of Sluis where he sold the box to a silversmith, and it is said he found four hosts in his pocket which he ate, which action was considered yet another sacrilege. He was found, convicted and strangled after his hands were cut off, and burned on the grill eleven days later.
The pit under the toilets was cleaned and the gigantic pile of faeces was conveyed in a procession attended by many pious citizens. The excrements were buried ritually in a large well in the cemetary. The canonnic who felt responsible for letting the thief enter the sacristy asked to be buried after his death next to this rather smelly well. The city council decided to destroy the building and built a chapel on the premises, called the ‘Sakramentskapel’, because ‘sakrament’ was the word used for host, in 1701. After its renovation in the 19th century it looked pretty much like today. Now by a strange twist of history it houses a rather luxuous… chocolate shop.

Bibliography

First of all, the three main books on the subject:

01. Johan Ballegeer: "Het Oosten Brugge : tempeliers-, compagnons- en vrijmetselaarsrelicten in Brugge", Brugge : Bartje van de Loge, 2000, 84 p.
Offers five masonic tours (earth - water - air - fire and quintessentia), this little book was published in small quantities by the lodge.
02. Johan Ballegeer: "Stadhuis Brugge : vrijmetselaarsmotieven, schoonheid en mysterie in de Brugse Gotiek" Wommelgem : Den Gulden Engel, 1987, 96 p.
Offers a detailed overview of the multiple masonic references and symbols in the architecture of the city council.
03. Marcus Landas: "Brugge, een Corpus Hermeticum. Een esoterisch fragment van een stad", Zedelgem, Flandria Nostra, 1989
Probably the most definitive book on the subject, starting from a famous painting by Jan Van Eyck, offering the concise history of the hermetic movements from the ancient times until today, while proposing a tour of the three main places of mystery in Bruges: the Church of Jerusalem, the Chapel of the Holy Blood and the (now long gone) Church of St. Donatius.

Next some general books about mysteries in Bruges:
04. "Brugge op zijn kant. Geïllustreerde wandelgids in 100 verhalen", Oostkamp, Stichting Kunstboek 2002
A guided tour published when Bruges was a cultural capital in 2002, in which I found many spicy anecdotes.
05. Dries Vanysacker: "Hekserij in Brugge. De magische leefwereld van een stadsbevolking, 16de-17de eeuw", Brugge, Marc Van de Wiele, 1988
This book tells the stories of the withchunts in Bruges

Then a few of books on the general subject of medieval mysteries
06. Paul de Saint-Hilaire: "La Belgique Mystérieuse", Bruxelles, Rossel, 1973
Offered a small idea of the Templar traditions in Belgium, albeit more in the Wallony region.
07. Alexander Roob: "Alchemie & Mystiek", Kerdriel, Taschen, 2006
An amazing magnus opus offering an extended history of most occult movements in the west, with a very rich iconography interpreting the symbols through the tradition of alchemy.
08. Prof. ir. M. Gout: "Symboliek in kathedralenbouw", Mirananda, Den Haag, 2002
Further ideas on church symbology in the Middle Ages. Though the best book on this subject is probably
09. Fulcanelli: "Le Mystère des cathédrales. Esoteric interpretation of the Hermetic Symbols of the Great Work", Las Vegas, Brotherhood of Life, 2000.
I haven't studied it well enough yet - but it might come handy if next year a MLA meeting takes place in Paris!
10. Robert Lawlor: "Sacred Geometry. Philosophy and practice", London, Thames & Hudson, 2002.
Idem ditto.

Finally, the most important book on the Middle Ages ever written might be by Dutch historian
11. Johan Huizinga: "De herfsttij der middeleeuwen" ("The Autumn of the Middle Ages") from 1919, describing the exuberant lifestyles in all layers of the population.