Basilica of the Holy Blood
A crusader brought a relic of the Holy Blood to Bruges in 1150 — it still sits upstairs in the same chapel he built.
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Two chapels share one building on Burg square: the dark, virtually unchanged Romanesque lower nave from 1134 — among the best-preserved in West Flanders — and a Gothic upper chapel, rebuilt in the 16th century and renovated in Gothic Revival style in the 19th, where the Passion relic brought back by Thierry of Alsace is kept.
What to look for
- The 12th-century tympanum carved above the inner doorway, depicting the baptism of Saint Basil
- A polychrome wooden Sedes Sapientiae — a seated Madonna and Child — in the right nave of the lower chapel, dated to the early 14th century
- The Passion relic in the upper Gothic chapel, the relic tradition says Thierry of Alsace returned with on April 7, 1150
Entrance is on Burg square in central Bruges; both the lower Romanesque chapel and the upper Gothic chapel are accessed from the same building.
Basilica of the Holy Blood is one of 10 sights worth the detour in Bruges, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Bruges pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Bruges
- Jan Breydel StadiumTwo fierce rivals share one city-owned bowl — whoever plays tonight, 29,042 seats make their case loudly.
- Madonna of BrugesThe Christ child looks ready to walk away — and Mary isn't trying to stop him.
- Church of Our LadyThe third-tallest brick church tower in the world marks the spot where a Michelangelo marble and two Burgundian royal tombs share the same Gothic nave.
- GroeningemuseumSix centuries of Flemish painting — Van Eyck's 1436 altarpiece to Magritte — inside a single building on the site of a medieval abbey.
- Belfry of BrugesThree times gutted by fire, three times rebuilt — and still leaning 87 cm to the east.
- Sint-SalvatorskathedraalA parish church for nine centuries, it only became Bruges's cathedral in 1834 because the French demolished the original — then its roof burned down five years later.