Church of Our Lady
The 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.
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Built across the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, the church holds Michelangelo's white marble Madonna and Child (c. 1504) in its southern aisle, and behind the high altar, the gilded bronze tomb effigies of Charles the Bold — the last Valois Duke of Burgundy — and his daughter Mary, lying on polished black stone slabs.
What to look for
- Gilded bronze effigy of Charles the Bold in full armor, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, on a polished black stone slab
- White marble Madonna and Child by Michelangelo (c. 1504) in the Baroque Cappella sacra, southern aisle
- Flying buttresses on the exterior — built in the 1270s and 1280s — that carry the weight of the Gothic nave walls
The 115.6-metre tower is the tallest structure in Bruges, useful as a landmark to navigate back from anywhere in the city.
Church of Our Lady 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.
- 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.
- Basilica of the Holy BloodA crusader brought a relic of the Holy Blood to Bruges in 1150 — it still sits upstairs in the same chapel he built.
- 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.