Chocostory and the Friet Museum

 Huis de Croone before the major
restoration 1978-1984,
The main entrance was to the left
of the facade.

On the corner of Sint Jansplein and Wijnzakstraat, there is an absolutely beautiful building. The Huis de Croone, a former wine tavern in what was the wine-trading district of mediaeval Brugge, is a Gothic building from the second half of the fifteenth century. After hundreds of years as a wine tavern, it became a place to buy patisserie for a long time and in the twentieth century it was variously the H.Q. of the Employment Exchange; a police training school; the Credit Communal de Belgique; and the VDAB, the Flemish Employment Bureau. Now it is a Museum telling the story of Chocolate and there is also Lumina Domestica, a splendid collection of lamps in one part of the building.

 Madonna and child, Huis de Croone.

Built probably around 1480, it has had major alterations at several points in its history. In 1830, for instance, the lower windows were further lowered and the cross frames replaced. In 1967/8 there was a major historic restoration by the then owners, Gemeentekrediet, when the lowered windows were restored to their original position and many missing corbels, consoles and wall studs were inserted. Below the front four bays is a two-aisled cellar, and a basement below the back house, with barrel vaulting plus a Gothic fireplace. Fernand Bonneure describes the house thus: ”This typical high brick gabled house with numerous windows in flawless bays illustrates the splendour with which the houses in Bruges used to be built and looked after.” Certainly, normally as one passes by, it is the perfect elegance of the Huis de Croone which catches the eye and delights. It is one of the most distinguished buildings in an urban landscape of special buildings. And I must admit that I always wonder if the most appropriate use for such a special building of such venerable age and quality, is to house a chocolate museum.

 Huis de Croone in its present glory.

The former Genoese Embassy;
Saaihalle; and now the
Friet Museum.

Continuing my prejudiced outlook, my mind leaps effortlessly to the Friet Museum on Vlamingstraat, owned by the same Van Belle family as the Chocolate Museum, and apparently, and mysteriously, very popular indeed with tourists. In one of those uncanny connections that life occasionally presents, this museum, too, is housed in one of the most gorgeous and special mediaeval buildings in Brugge. In former times it was the House of the Genoese, reminding of the trade between Brugge and Genoa from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Genoese traders settled in Brugge from around 1375, selling spices, silver, gold and precious stones and buying cloth, yarn and grain. The volume of trade quickly grew and in 1395, Philip the Good negotiated a treaty transferring the Genoese commercial centre from London to Bruges and that was the year that the present building became the virtual Genoese embassy. Goods were stored, and marketed from, here while, from 1411, the Genoese Consul lived nearby in a purpose-built house in Grauwerkersstraat. This successful arrangement continued until 1516 when the Genoese hanse, together with those of Florence and Lucca, left Brugge to settle in Antwerp as the commercial viability, and consequent importance of Brugge began their long decline. With the silting up of the passage to the sea, Brugge ceased to be the great market of Western Europe and gradually began the long decline into relative poverty and picturesque commercial insignificance.

St George on the facade of the museum, housed in a building
which is a masterpiece of Brugge, to be treasured.

From 1558, the exquisite building became the Saaihalle where white wool was traded, a very successful commercial industry begun by fugitive weavers fleeing the French Flemish city of Hondschoote because of religious persecution. This use of the building gradually ceased towards the middle of the 18^th century after which it served a variety of uses including as a pub, a shop, a dance hall, a Seemanshaus during WW1 and a brothel for German soldiers. Later, after WW2, it became a cinema, the Coliseum. From 1978 to 1984, Luc Vermeersch directed a much-needed restoration for the badly-neglected old building and the Generale Bankmaatschappij turned the place into a prestigious meeting place for seminars, lectures, receptions and exhibitions. It has housed the Friet Museum since 2008. Again, one feels it would be wonderful to have this historic building with its exceptional facade, in use for public events like lectures, exhibitions etc.