Oosterlingenhuis, Krom Genthof 4.

 I am currently reading a quite marvellous book: Bruges, Cradle of Capitalism, 1280-1390 by James M. Murray. It is a an amazingly researched, scholarly study of how Bruges became the commercial capital of Northern Europe in the late fourteenth century. Murray argues that a combination of fortuitous changes, such as the shift to sea-borne commerce and the extraordinary efforts of the city's population, served to shape a great commercial centre. In effect, Murray's book works not only as a case study in mediaeval economic history, but also as a social and cultural history of mediaeval Bruges.

Murray suggests that the greatest single difference in the economy which was taking shape by 1300 was that instead of Brugeois or Flemish merchants journeying to their customers, their customers were journeying to them. Increasingly, economic success depended on attracting the largest possible number of foreign merchants from the widest diversity of places with the greatest variety of goods. The important economic magnet that Bruges became, meant that it was imperative for merchants to either live there or at least, have an intermittent presence there. 

The Beurseplein showing Ter Beurse, the hostel
belonging to the de Beurse family since 1276

What Murray refers to as " the commercial infrastructure" of Bruges, much of which came to be situated in the Beurse square on Vlaamingstraat and its environs along Zouterstraat, [now Academiestraat] towards St Jan's Bridge, [now Jan Van Eyckplein] comprised hostels, money exchanges, notaries, law courts. The Beurse square was dominated by the hostel, or commercial house, named after the Van de Beurse family; a hostel comprised a number of businesses and by definition occupied a substantial house of many rooms and several storeys, probably with capacious cellars for storage of goods, stables and a courtyard. The significance of a building signified importance of identity and was always a centre for trade. Thus hostels were quite separate from inns which served food, drink and offered lodging,and from other centres like taverns, cabarets, brothels and churches where merchants might also meet and do occasional business. These hostels were owned or rented by foreign merchants as residences for them and their households, and for business, or by wealthy members of the Bruges brokers' guilds. Murray gives examples of the former, such as the English wool merchant, William de la Pole, who rented large premises in Bruges to pursue the wool trade. From 1339-1340 he rented eight houses for sixty five weeks, to store and distribute 2,400 sacks of wool at a cost of less than one third of that in his native Hull.

Engraving showing  part of the
majestic new Oosterlingenhuis
circa 1481.

Somewhat later, a well-known Hanse merchant, Siverd Veckinchusen, owned a complex of houses in the Krom Genthof which, in 1442, became the site of the Oosterlingenhuis, the seat of the Hanse community of merchants within Bruges. Bruges was the only one of the Hanseatic cities [Cologne, Novgorod, Lubeck] which permitted ownership of property by foreigners. A little is known of the history of this building which came into being because of the frustration experienced by  the merchants from the Hanseatic cities, in Bruges. In 1451 the disaffected group left Bruges to move to Utrecht. An important delegation from the city followed them and offered many favourable conditions for their return which included a palatial building for them, constructed and financed by the city of Bruges. They were persuaded, returned and the impressive hostel was built at the rear of the Spanish Loskaii where boats could moor and goods be unloaded and loaded. In 1478 the original, partly wooden, building was demolished and the new monumental Oosterlingenhuis was built under the leadership of Jan van den Poele and completed in 1481. It was sufficiently noteworthy to be included by the painter, Pieter Claeissens, in his 1560 painting dedicated to the Seven Wonders of Bruges. 

Today's remains of this historic building.
Genthof, 4.

I live in Woensdagmarkt off which lies Oosterlingenplein and Krom Genthof. A rather regal flag adorning a handsome building at Krom Genthof 4, clearly the remains of a much larger building, caught my eye recently and I noticed it had the name Oosterlingenhuis displayed. It wasn't until I saw the same name in Murray's book that I suddenly becane alert to the historical possibilities, always almost a given in Bruges. I feel quite thrilled to have stumbled upon a little of its long narrative and am reminded of the dazzling historical continuity of this extraordinary little city.

Mediaeval merchants, weighing barrels.

 Seven Wonders of Bruges
Pieter Claeissens 1560
Included was the Oosterlingenhuis.