Venice-of-the-north’s ups and downs: A brief history of the port city of Bruges, Belgium

Abstract

Venice Italy is famed for its rich history built on trade and centuries of accumulated wealth. But when a major storm in 1134 opened an inlet in the North Sea coast, near what is today Bruges Belgium, it created natural access to a new port. The “waterway” brought such an economic bloom to the Flandrian city that it became known as the Venice-of-the-North eventually competing, and perhaps surpassing, its namesake as the richest city in Europe. What Mother Nature giveth, she can take away, and indeed shifting sands, silting, combined with ships’ larger sizes, wars and political conflicts brought Bruges to ruin. From enjoying centuries as one of the largest and wealthiest harbor cities in the Western world, it became an impoverished settlement, until it rose from its ashes through the construction of a strategically connected manmade port, away from the inlet. The new port fell victim to World Wars I and II, but is now a ranking and continuously expanding North Sea harbor. The paper traces the vicissitudes of Bruges.