_Earliest Bruges_
From a very early date, perhaps since the time of the Romans, there had
stood some nine leagues west of Ghent, on a small, oblong-shaped island,
formed by the confluence of the Boterbeke with an elbow of the Roya, and
a deep, broad moat which united the two streams, a fortified camp or
castle surrounded by a handful of cottages. Hard-by on the mainland,
near the spot where the rivers met, stood a small, ancient sanctuary,
which tradition said St. Amand had built, and further up stream, on the
banks of the Boterbeke, a larger church dedicated to the Saviour, and
said to be the handiwork of St. Eloi.
This place, perhaps from the _brugge_ or heather which surrounded it,
perhaps from the _brigge_ or bridge by which it was approached, was
called Brugge or Bruggestock or Bruggeswelle--a lonely, desolate place
hemmed in by forest and marsh, and, from the nature of its site, well
calculated to form a stronghold against the Danes.
Moved by this consideration, hither came Baldwin and Judith when they
had made their peace with the irascible King Charles, determined to make
Brugge the headquarters of their government and their principal abode. A
felicitous choice of residence destined to be fruitful in results.
Thanks to it, we shall see the tumbled-down ruins of Bruggestock develop
later on into that wondrous conglomeration of picturesque civic
splendour--rival, in its heyday, of Venice, alike in commerce and in
treasures of art, and in glory of piled-up brick, which later
generations called Bruges, the Queen of the North.
Before going further, let us linger awhile over the Brugge of Baldwin's
day. The old fortress which he found there was built on an oblong-shaped
island. The river Roya, which enclosed it on two sides (those facing
S.E. and N.E.), still runs in its ancient bed; it flows alongside of
that pleasant lime grove, which some old Burgomaster of a hundred years
ago planted in front of that unlovely terrace of substantial,
comfortable-looking eighteenth-century _bourgeois_ homes which goes by
the name of the Dyver.
Soon, however, after the bend of the stream, the Roya now burrows
underground, vaulted over in the seventeenth century, and wends its
subterranean course along the south-west side of the _Place du Bourg_,
under Government House, and at the back of the houses which line the
east side of the _rue Flamande_, and comes once more into daylight just
opposite the old Academy in the _Place des Biscayens_.
As to the Boterbeke--the stream which formed the north-west boundary of
the old Bourg, its course has long since been diverted, and it now only
skirts the city. It formerly entered Bruges beyond the station, near the
spot where the old Bouverie gate stood forty years ago, crept along near
the cathedral, down the _rue du Vieux Bourg_, beneath the Belfry, built
on piles thrust into its bed, and finally mingled its waters with those
of the Roya at the corner of the _rue Breidal_. The moat which formed
the south-western boundary of the old Bourg has also been filled in,
and the present _rue Neuve_ is built over its ancient bed.
Of the actual buildings which Baldwin found at Brugge, it is doubtful
whether any remain. Possibly the Baptistry Chapel, in the rear of the
Chapel of St. Basil, is of the date which tradition claims for it, and,
if so, it may perhaps be identified with St. Amand's Chapel on the banks
of the Roya, but recent expert investigation makes it almost certain
that this portion of the Chapel of St. Basil dates from the same epoch
as the rest of the building, and that Baldwin, Bras de Fer, was himself
its founder. St. Eloi's Church of Our Lady occupied the site of the
present cathedral, but of the original structure no vestige remains,
save perhaps the lower portion of the tower, and even this is doubtful.
The old Bourg itself had fallen into such a state of decay when Baldwin
first came to Bruges, that he did not dare deposit there the relics of
St. Donatian which had been given to him by Archbishop Ebber of Rheims,
but sent them for safe keeping to his castle at Thorhout, about three
leagues south of Bruges, until the new bourg which he was building
should be ready to receive them. The old fortress was never restored,
but its stones were used later on during the reign of Baldwin II. for
the construction of a wall round the city, and of this wall no vestige
remains.
Baldwin's new Bourg was built on an island formed by a backwater of the
Roya--an irregular-shaped strip of land of considerably smaller
dimensions than the island of the old Bourg. The backwater in question
branched off at right angles to the main stream, and running for a short
distance straight on, presently turned sharp round to the left, at a
little beyond the site of the present fish market; and then gradually
curved round till it again met the river at the corner of the _Grand'
Place_, and of the _rue Philipstock_.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE QUAI VERT]
The course of this backwater has long since been entirely changed.
Running on in a straight line past the fish market, it now empties
itself into the _grand coupure_, and is one of the most picturesque
waterways in Bruges.
Along the right bank of this beautiful stream, going towards the great
canal, runs a towing-path, well shaded with poplar trees and limes, and
fringed on the side with some delightful old gabled houses, and by
[Illustration: Palais du Franc and the Hôtel de Ville from River]
others less interesting and of more recent date. But it is the left bank
which gives the stream its greatest charm, for here, at the angle where
the backwater turns off from the main stream, stand certain phlegmatic
municipal offices of the last century, laving their feet in the
water--comfortable-looking, old-fashioned red-brick buildings which,
somehow or other, 'the golden stain of time' has managed to make
beautiful. Behind them soar the high-pitched roofs and dormer windows of
an old city hall, whose pinnacles and turrets and spires give play to
light and shade, and break up the sky line. Hard-by, at the end of a
narrow street which runs back from the water, behold a rival of the
Bridge of Sighs, and in a gilded gatehouse without gates, the marriage
of the Middle Age and the Renaissance, and to the right, quaint,
venerable and picturesque in weather-beaten brick, the Palace of the
Liberty of Bruges, and further still, a vista of old homes, and shady
lawns, and overhanging trees and bridges, hunch-backed and of ancient
date.
But to return to Baldwin's bourg, the Castle itself--a spacious and
strongly-fortified building, which stood on ground now occupied by the
Palais de Justice, the Hotel de Ville, and the unsightly modern
erections on the east side of the square--included within its precincts
not only Baldwin's own residence, but the residence of the Châtelains or
Viscounts of Bruges, the _Ghistelhaus_ where hostages were lodged, the
Court chapel and the Court prison; opposite this group of buildings on
the north side, that is, of the Bourg, stood a sanctuary dedicated to
Our Lady, which Baldwin had founded to receive the relics of St.
Donatian, and further on the cloisters of the priests who served it.
The whole island was encircled by a strong and lofty wall, pierced by
four great gateways, each one protected by a portcullis and a
drawbridge, which were the only means of communication with the outer
world. Such was the citadel reared on the banks of the Roya by the
father and founder of Bruges. Of his handiwork only a fragment has come
down to us, but a fragment so perfect, that as one enters the gloomy
crypt beneath the Chapel of the Precious Blood, the mind is
involuntarily carried back to the time when Baldwin and his family
worshipped there, a thousand years ago.
[Illustration: THE CRYPT OF ST. BASIL'S]
Clustering around Baldwin's great fortress were the houses and huts and
hovels of such members of the sovereign's household as were unable to
find lodgings within the bourg, of the purveyors who catered for his
daily needs, and of a handful of traders and country folk who sought and
found safety beneath the shadow of its walls. Even at this early date
Bruges must have been a place of some commercial note, for the coins
which from time to time have been found in the neighbourhood show that a
mint had been already established there in the days of the first Baldwin
(865-879), and before the close of his son's reign, so greatly had the
settlement increased, that it was deemed necessary to surround the whole
with a moat and a great wall, built up of the _veltsteen_ (field stone)
and rubble, which had once been the old bourg (A.D. 912).
Baldwin, Bras de Fer, that redoubtable warrior whom no man had ever
seen in the day-time without his coat-of-mail, and who in time of war
was said to have not even doffed it at night, had received the County,
or, as it was called in those days, Marquisate of Flanders, on terms of
defending that quarter of Neustria from the ravages of the Danes, and
though with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, he managed to keep
the sea-dogs at bay, his reign of fourteen years was one unbroken
hurricane of effort and strife, until he saw the shadow of death on the
horizon, and then at last the old soldier sheathed his sword and
withdrew to the Abbey of St. Bertin, there in the quiet of its cloister
to gather up his strength for the last great battle.
So, too, was it during the days of the second Baldwin, but the mantle of
the old Marquis had not fallen on his son. The hard head and iron will
and iron hand of Baldwin, Bras de Fer, was not the heritage of Baldwin
the Bald, and the wild courage of the Karls of the seaboard, who had to
bear the brunt of the battle whilst their panic-stricken chief was
safely entrenched in his fortress at Bruges, could do little more than
stem the tide. Why dwell on the woes of Neustria, laments Adroald, a
monk of Fleury, why dwell on the woes of Neustria? From the shore of the
ocean right away to Auvergne there is no country which has preserved its
freedom, no city, no village but has been overwhelmed by the devastating
fury of these Pagans, and this has been going on for thirty years. Such
was the state of affairs at the close of the eight hundreds, and no land
on the Continent of Europe had suffered more than Flanders, but though
the rural population had been all but wiped out, though hamlet and abbey
had gone up in flames, though cities like Courtrai and Arras and Ghent
had been pillaged or razed to the ground, somehow or other Bruges had
escaped, nay, in spite of the surrounding devastation, perhaps by reason
of it, she had prospered, had increased her population, had enlarged her
borders, had girded herself, as we have seen, with ramparts, and added
to her crown of sanctuaries a new gem.
In the year 880, on the left bank of the Roya, a little higher up stream
than the old bourg, the citizens of Bruges built for themselves a
chapel, and dedicated it to St. Mary and St. Hilarius--a sufficiently
humble structure, knit together like so many churches in the eight
hundreds, of rudely-hewn beams and rough planks.
From this grain of mustard seed in after ages there sprang up a tree
that is still the glory of Bruges--a stately shrine, adorned by a
steeple, than which, in its grand simplicity, there is not one perhaps
more lovely in the world.
Baldwin II., who died in the year 918, was buried in the Abbey Church at
Blandinium.
The circumstances which led to his interment there are sufficiently
curious. They had at first laid him alongside his father at St. Omer,
but when his widow Alfrida, who wished to share her lord's grave, was
informed by the abbot of that monastery that his rule forbade him to
admit even a dead woman within the precincts of his cloister, she gave
orders that Baldwin's remains should be translated to Blandinium, where
they buried him with much solemnity _in ædicula Parentis Virginis_, and
where she herself was laid to rest eleven years later.
[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME]