Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde
Cross the three-arched stone bridge and step into a courtyard where women have lived in religious community since before 1240.
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Founded around 1244 by Countess Margaret of Constantinople and declared "Princely" under Philip the Fair in 1299, this is the only beguinage still standing in Bruges. Thirty whitewashed houses from the late 16th–18th centuries ring a central yard. Benedictine nuns replaced the last beguines in 1927 and still live here today.
What to look for
- The 1776 entrance gate by master mason Hendrik Bultynck, with a bay statue of Elizabeth of Hungary — patron saint of beguinages
- The first house beside the gate, furnished as a museum with lacework, paintings, and 17th- and 18th-century furniture
- The Gothic beguinage church, associated with Elizabeth of Hungary — while the wider complex, De Wijngaard, is separately devoted to Saint Alexius
The complex is an active Benedictine convent; the first beguine house next to the entrance gate is open as a museum.
Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde 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.
- 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.