Dante's Memorial Stone

I have often noticed a stone plaque commemorating Dante Alighieri on a relatively modest, modern building on the corner of Academiestraat and Vlamingstraat, near where I live. I have equally often told myself to find out why it is there but action came there none. Till now, gentle reader! And that is because I have discovered the explanation in a super Art Guide for Bruges by Fernand Bonneure published in 1985. Lent to me by a friend some time ago, I have only dipped into it occasionally, long enough to respect the cultural authenticity of its author. But obviously not long enough to read it properly!

Bruges rather enjoys being referred to as The Venice of the North but I had not realised that the 

 The Grand Canal, Venice

Republic of Venice had colonies in London, Southampton and Bruges, connected by their own shipping service by the beginning of the 14^th century! In Ter Oude Beurze, opposite the site of the present plaque, was the headquarters of the Venetian contingent in Brugge. The Spanish traveller, Pero Tafur, was the first to compare Venice to Brugge after having visited both cities in 1438. In a story of his, published in Madrid in 1874, he wrote, “It appears to me, and many will agree with me, that there is more business activity in Bruges than in Venice. In the whole western world there is no such large trading centre like Bruges though England is doing some business too. It is said that at some moments as much as seven hundred ships a day leave the port of Bruges. In Venice, however, also a rich city of course, only the inhabitants of the city itself are involved in the trade….. For many regions Bruges seems to be the appropriate port and the best market where all these goods can be traded.”

Ter Oude Beurze, third on left; Florentijnse Loge with

four decorative towers, facing.

Marcus Gerard map 1562.

Opposite the Venetian Ter Beurze was the hanse-house of Florence. On the famous Marcus Gerards’ map of Brugge from 1562, on the site of the present corner-house displaying the plaque, is shown a splendid, four-turreted building. This was built by Florentine traders in 1430 and was used by the Florentine colony in Brugge until it left after the silting up of the sea route. It was sold in 1637. It is now a restaurant, appropriately De Florentijnen, and the Vlamingstraat facade is decorated with Dante’s memorial stone, placed there in 1984 after its original place in the Markt, at the foot of the Belfry, proved to be too attractive a place for tourists who were wearing away the chiselled ‘in memoriam’ letters. It was presented to the city of Brugge by the Societa Dante Alighieri Comitato di Roma.

Dante was, and is, Florence’s favourite and most famous of sons, a poet of huge stature and significance. The three lines from his Inferno, on his Bruges memorial stone:

 Dante Alighieri
1265-1321

"Quale I Fiamminghi tra Guzzante e Bruggia

Temendo 'i fiotto che inver lor s’avventa 

Fanno lo schermo, perche ‘l mar si fuggia." 

[Just like the Flemings between White Sand and Bruges

who, fearing the flood which is making them build

a dam, protection from which the sea flees.]

and the further mention of Bruges in Canto 15 in Inferno together with Douwaai, (Douai), Ghent and Rijsel (Lille), show Dante using these cities as symbols of power, greatness and authority. In fact, it re-affirms the fame and power of Bruges within Europe in the beginning of the 14^th century.

In 1985 a Societa Dante Alighieri Comitato di Bruggia was founded to give lectures and concerts on Italian culture and provide Italian courses. I can find a nod to its continuing existence but nothing showing any contemporary activity.

Ter Oude Beurze still stands, majestically

surveying Vlamingstraat and

Academiestraat