Vlissinghe Cafe – Bruges
The oldest bar in Bruges can be traced back to the time of the city’s economic apocalypse. An unassuming whitewashed brick building, down a nondescript alley, houses a tavern that can be traced all the way back to 1515. Vlissinghe is a quaint little gathering place with a ton of character and history. Raw wood ceilings overhang a small room with only five medium sized table and a tiny little corner bar, where three beautiful women pour beer and serve food to the day’s patrons.
I sit at the end of the bar and order the house beer, the Vlissinghe, an 8% amber ale with nice initial kick and a quickly dissipating finish, then I survey my surrounding. The small room is furnished with antique items and old paintings. The cozy little fireplace sits in disuse, now occupied by a cast iron stove and ironing board as well as a couple comfy chairs beside a rack of old wooden pipes. Story goes that this spot was a favourite of famous Belgian artists Pieter Paul Rubens and Antoon van Dyke. One of the paintings on the wall is said to portray two of the earliest owners of the tavern. Tuenis and his wife are painted as white haired and wrinkled and said to have run the tavern until the early 1600’s. Local legend has it that the lovers both lived to be well over 100 years old, then died on the same day, to always be at each others side, even in heaven. A medieval painting of Bruges in the midst of war is faded and cracked above the door, supposedly showing the tavern referenced from that time.
Out a little door in the back, was what used to be the bowling greens, but has now been turned into a charming little garden and courtyard with a few small tables for beer drinkers to sit at on a sunny day.
Now for the story of Bruges downfall, and she’s a doozy, though there are a couple of different versions.
It all started with Mary of Burgundy, who was the daughter of the very rich Duchy of Burgundy, and put in charge of the city-state of Bruges. A city that once hated the French was quickly swayed by Mary of Burgundy because she hosted great city-wide feasts for everyone to eat, from the poorest citizens to the richest merchants.
Soon enough an eligible husband was found, one born out of power and profit for both houses. Maximilian of the house of Hapsburg, one of the most powerful houses in Germany became her husband. But it would only last for a very short time.
The conspiracy thickens. After they were married Maximilian wanted support from the house of Burgundy to fund a campaign against the Turks in eastern Europe. But the house of Burgundy didn’t want to fund such a war in a far away place and refused. The French would not pay.
Soon after their child Phillip was born, Mary set out into Flanders on a hunting expedition, something she enjoyed often. She had her hunting falcon and hounds, but on this day her favourite horse had fallen mysteriously ill. But she wasn’t going to let that prevent her from one of her favorite activities, so they saddled up a replacement and she set out. Her falcon scouted the countryside for deer and boar and when it spotted something it circled and squawked before returning to Mary for its reward. But this time the unfamiliar horse was spooked by the sudden dive of the hunting falcon. It reared up in fright and Mary was thrown to the ground, breaking her back in the fall. Three days later she died from her injuries.
After the death, her son Phillip inherited Bruges and its great riches, and Maximilian had custody of Phillip. Now he had the power to fund his expedition. He set out with his army to go conquer the Turks, leaving a Steward in charge of Bruges by the name of Pieter Lanckhals. Lanckhals, which means “long-neck”, was a cruel despot who reveled in the torture and execution of those who did not pay their taxes. And as the taxes kept going up to fund the war in Turkey, Pieter became an increasingly vilified person.
Once again the people of Bruges revolted, murdering their oppressors in numbers and driving the rest out of the city, capturing Pieter Lanckhals in the process. Maximilian, having received news of the revolt hurried back to Bruges only to be captured by the rebels along with his son, Phillip the Handsome. They imprisoned Maximilian in a locked chamber in the tallest room overlooking the city square, then he watched as his steward Pieter Lanckhals was beheaded in front of his very eyes.
But the rebels could not kill Maximilian, he came from perhaps the most powerful house in all of Europe at the time, and any harm to him would be met with swift and devasting retribution from the Hapsburg Empire. So they reached a deal. They would set him free if he agreed Bruges would no longer have to pay taxes to their foreign ruler. He agreed and then he was let free. He didn’t go back on his word. He just made it a moot point.
When Maximilian returned it was with his entire German army. Bruges surrendered without a fight and Maximilian chose to make an example of them. There were three punishments.
First they had to tear down their city walls. The fortified city would no longer be safe from war or invasion.
Next, he banned all commercial trade within the city. No need to raise taxes, if there weren’t any taxes to collect. Overnight, this devastated the city. All of the trade in cloth and textiles were moved to Antwerp, fish and meat was moved to Gent, leather and artistry moved to Brussels. Within a year, the city was dead to all but its most stubborn inhabitants. It would not grow again for another three centuries.
His last punishment was an odd one. He charged the city to look after the swan population, the long-necks, as punishment for how they dealt with his friend Pieter. Now as you walk around Bruges and you see the swans swimming in the canals, you will know why, and know they are protected.
Maximilian went on to become the Holy Roman Emperor, and he established a long line of descendants that rule from Spain to Austria. Bruges was just a small piece of his legacy, but one which changed the course of history for the city for centuries to come. To our benefit, it has left us with a breathtaking medieval town seemingly frozen in time, and the Vlissinghe Café, which started soon after he left.
Now, who knows how much of this was true, history has a tendency to change over time. And further investigation reveals that around the very same time, the waterways retreated back into the sea and the canals themselves became to gummed up with silt as to be no longer useable. The trading city was no longer useful as a hub, so the merchants moved elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the Vlissinghe Café has stood on the same spot for over 500 years, serving the remaining people of Bruges. So it went until the town once more became a center of attraction for artists all over the world, and travellers looking for a unique experience and so flourished the Vlissinghe Cafe, one of the oldest continuous taverns in all of Europe, ready to feed and water those looking for comfort and conversation.