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Me in Woensdagmarkt 9
perhaps ten years ago. |
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| Bruges, Provinciaalhof |
A dear friend recently sent me, via Google, an article in
Dutch, from a series,
Bruges Up Close, a blog claiming to take its
readers on “
a fascinating journey of discovery through the city”
revealing familiar sights and hidden gems which help to bring the history of
Brugge to life. And there, on page 1, is a photo of part of the building where
I lived for over seven years, at the corner of Woensdagmarkt and Genthof near
the Spiegelrei. The picture has a street
scene looking towards ‘my’ building, showing a portion of the roof and the
tower above. Below the corner of the roof is a window which had been my study
window ten years ago. Great pleasure as memories come flooding back of my happy
Bruggean years, intended, no doubt, by the friend who sent me the article.
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Slightly blurry photo of corner of
Woensdagmarkt 9/Genthof 11.
Turret with copper ship
weathervane above.
|
From the outside, the building is not beautiful, but it is impressive,
and it is old, perhaps one of the oldest brick-built residential buildings in
the city, dating back to the late Middle Ages. Undoubtedly, it was an upmarket,
one might say, patrician, house owned and inhabited by wealthy citizens like merchants
and bankers in earlier centuries. Later it served various purposes including as
a lodging house and inn, and during the nineteenth century it was a popular
base for the burgeoning
tourist trade from Britain and Holland. Then it was
known as the British and International Pension and attracted a flourishing
trade. In 1869 the building, Woensdagmarkt 9 in ‘my’ part of the whole, and
Genthof 11 round the corner of the same building, as it were, were totally
restored by the famous Bruges’ architect, Louis Delacenserie who did so much to
restore old Bruggean properties and designed several of the elegant railway stations
flowering in the Age of The Train. His sure expertise accomplished, for instance,
the design and construction of the internationally applauded Antwerp Station
and Bruges’ Sint Pieters Station.
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| Antwerp Station in all its Delacenserian glory. |
Delacenserie gave the house a neo-classical appearance, resulting
in a greater simplicity of line and form, recalling the traditional. He added a
handsome turret, crowning the spire with an elegant copper ship which still
serves as a landmark in the area. The ship is not only a weathervane, but it is
also a serious maritime symbol with layers of meaning. The ship refers
generally to Bruges’ rich maritime past when the city was an important hub of
international trade in the Middle Ages and a global port in the Hanseatic
League. Specifically, locally, the ship was also a clear status signal, a subtle but
significant indication to all, showing that the owner of the house belonged to
the merchant elite and played a major role in world maritime affairs. Similar
weathervanes, laden with meaning, can be found in other large port cities like
Amsterdam, Danzig and Hamburg.
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Copper weathervane as illustration. Not the Genthof
Woensdagmarkt one featuring a warship; this is
more of a schooner! |
The type of ship fashioned for the spire on Woensdagmarkt 9 was
a Manschip or warship. It had a high stern, at least three masts, all of which
were square-rigged, i.e. having square-shaped sails, and could be described as having
full rigging which implies that the manschip would be fully equipped for
immediate sailing. Although Bruges lost its direct connection to the sea in the sixteenth century when extraordinary storms caused the silting up of the
Zwin, the popular memory of that flourishing maritime era when Bruges was rich
and famous, remains vibrant. Buildings like Genthof 11 with its turreted
weathervane recall Bruges as a hub of the Hanseatic trade flowing from the sea
through the city’s canals. The copper manschip is both a monument and silent testimony
to the former Bruggean maritime glory.
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| Beginhof. |
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