Digging Up Brugge.

 

 I have not exactly grumbled properly, because I do approve of what the Commune is doing.

Jan van Eyckplein under seige.

That is the restoration and repair of many streets in the town including the underlying cables and pipes. It is just that one cannot turn a corner now without finding the way is closed by trenches in the road and multiple piles of cobblestones. I applaud the fact that the City Elders are taking advantage of the negative effects of the pandemic to use the unparalleled opportunity to renovate while the streets are more or less empty of tourists. It is just the tiny inconveniences and larger efforts to circumnavigate that occasionally irritate!

Sint Annarei. 13th century foundations.

However, an unlooked-for side effect of this massive regeneration project [for such it is] is the archaeological benefit. Several really interesting finds have occurred over the past few months within the Egg, unsurprising given the age of that august space. Perhaps the most interesting is along Sint Annarei; the discovery in March 2021, of the foundations of the former brewery, Den Hert plus the remains of a 13^th century wall. Den Hert had stood at numbers 17-18, from 1580-1921 with another brewery, Den Arend, at 23-27 Sint Annarei nearby. 13^th century foundations and walls of several houses have also appeared. Five large wooden vats with diameters of more than 1. 8 metres, have been

St Annarei and the present archaeological site showing
the disappeared street. Marcus Gerards' 1562 map

recovered and there is analysis currently to determine what the contents were. These pre-date the brewery

and it is expected that they may well indicate use by crafts such as those of dyers, tanners and fullers, given that traces of similar crafts have been discovered along Vervesdijk on the opposite, western side of the canal. The area would have been well suited to such activities given the slight distance from the centre, in case of unpleasant odours, and the proximity of running water. Signs of a disappeared street, marked on the Marcus Gerards' map of 1562  have also been located.

Sint Amanduskapel on the Marcus map 1562

Hand water pump which replaced the church, 
demolished in 1817.

Burial vault with wall decoration beneath the      
former Sint Amanduskapel.

In Feb 2021 workmen, working on the town water supply, discovered brick foundations, a fieldstone wall and a burial vault in Sint Amandstraat.

 A skull and shards of highly-decorated Brugge pottery, judged to be from the period 1250-1325, were also found. An old chapel, Sint AmandusKapel, probably founded by Sint Amand in the 8th century, had stood there from 1562, the chapel of the craft of herbs and groceries.  Presumably, eventually less used, it had been sold in 1798 and demolished in 1817 to be replaced in 1820, by the very large water pump still there.

The Anselm Adornes tomb in Jerusalemkerk

Unrelated to the incidental archaeological activity in Brugge but echoing these ancient links to the past, is the news that the monumental tomb of Anselm Adornes and his wife, Margriet van der Banck, in Jerusalemkerk has been removed for urgent restoration in Antwerp. It is estimated that in September 2022 it will be re-installed in its original important space in the family church. Anselm Adornes, born of a patrician family in Brugge, in 1424 and descended from Genoese merchants, became a merchant, patron, politician and diplomat. He had an extraordinary life ending, prematurely with his murder in Linlithgow, in Scotland in 1483 where he is buried; his heart was sent back to Brugge for interring in the impressive memorial tomb currently under renovation.

The following blog will outline details of this extraordinary man’s life.

A footnote to thank Kristien Boulinguez, in case she reads more than one blog! Just to ask her to contact me if she actually does visit Brugge on her historical quest for mediaeval Brugge. Would love to meet Kristien.