165 



BRUFF. 



BRUNN. 



IfiO 



and has ,1 population of about 8000. The town, which is surrounded 

 by a wall, ia well built, and consists of the Old Town, the New Town 

 (founded in the last century), and the suburbs of St. Peter and St. Paul, 

 which the Salzach separates. The buildings most deserving of notice 

 are the former episcopal palace, a handsome structure in the Italian 

 style ; spacious barracks and stables ; three parochial and three 

 auxiliary churches, the finest of which is that of St. Peter, where the 

 last four bishops of Spires lie interred ; an ecclesiastical seminary ; a 

 gymnasium ; a military hospital, another well-arranged hospital for 

 70 patients, conducted by the confraternity of Pious Brothers, and 

 provided with an anatomical theatre and a lecture room; and a 

 general house of correction for the circle of the llittel-Rhein. There 

 are some salt-works outside of the town ; but they are in a state of 

 decline. The principal occupation is making and selling wine. 



BRUFF. [LIMEBICK.] 



BRUGES, a city in Belgium, capital of the province of West 

 Flanders, is situated in a level country, in 51 12' N. lat, 3 13' 

 E. long., about 6 miles from the sen, and has a population of 49,457. 

 Its Flemish name Brugge is derived from the number of bridges which 

 cross the canals. The city ia connected with all the principal towns 

 in Belgium by railway. It is distant 1 4 miles E. by S. from Ostend, 

 59 miles W. by S. from Antwerp, and 75 miles W.N.W. from Brussels. 

 Its distance from Brussels in a straight line however is only 60 miles. 



In tli>) 7th century Bruges held the rank of a city. In 837 

 it was fortified by Baldwin, count of Flanders, in order to form 

 a barrier to the progress of the Northmen. The city waa sur- 

 rounded by walls in 1053, and enlarged in 1270. It was almost 

 entirely destroyed by fire on three several occasions in 1184, 1215, 

 and 1280. It wan further enlarged in 1331 by Count Lewis de Crecy. 

 In order to commemorate the high degree of perfection to which the 

 woollen manufacture had then been carried in Bruges, Philip the 

 Good in 1430 instituted the order of the Golden Fleece. While 

 under the dominion of the dukes of Burgundy Bruges became a 

 principal emporium of the commerce of Europe, the great centre of 

 the English wool trade, and the connecting link between the Hauseatic 

 league, and the great trading republics of Italy. The merchants of 

 Venice and of Genoa conveyed thither the produce of Italy and the 

 Levant, which they exchanged for the manufactures of the north of 

 Europe. The tapestry of Bruges was at that time the most esteemed 

 of any in Europe, and this reputation it long enjoyed. In addition 

 to the woollen manufacture Philip the Good gave encouragement to 

 many other branches of industry, and particularly to the production 

 of silk and linen fabrics. His enlightened patronage attracted the 

 Van Eycks to Bruges, in whose time the painters' guild, enrolled in 

 1358, numbered above 300 painters. At the time of its greatest 

 prosperity Bruges is said to have had a population of 200,000. 



In 1488 the citizens rose against the archduke Maximilian, and 

 placed him in confinement. Having vainly solicited the king of 

 France to support them in this act of violence they were reduced to 

 submission by the emperor of Germany, who marched to the deliver- 

 ance of his son. On this occasion 56 citizens were condemned to 

 death, and a great number were banished ; the city was deprived of 

 its privileges and was subjected to a heavy fine. From this time the 

 city lost its commercial importance, which was in great part trans- 

 ferred to Antwerp. In 1560 Pope Paul IV. erected Bruges into a 

 bishopric, which was united to that of Ghent by the concordat of 

 1801 but since the fall of Napoleon has recovered its independence. 

 Bruges was bombarded by the Dutch in 1704. Two years thereafter 

 it surrendered to the allies ; and it was twice taken by the French 

 in 1708 and 1745, but reverted to the house of Austria. In 1794 the 

 troops of the French republic took possession of the city, which was 

 soon after incorporated with France, and so continued until the close 

 of the war in 1814, when it became part of the kingdom of the 

 United Netherlands. Bruges, during its annexation to France, was 

 the capital of the department of Lys. 



Bruges stands on the little river Hege, which was formerly navi- 

 gable, and crowded with richly freighted cargoes up to the quays of 

 the town, but is now almost absorbed by canals. Ramparts extending 

 all round the Uwn form an agreeable public walk. The streets of 

 the town are narrow, but neat and clean, and the houses are mostly 

 large and well built ; many of them have an appearance of grandeur 

 which attests the opulence of their former inhabitants. The public 

 buildings are numerous and intcri-xting for their antiquity, their 

 architecture, and the works of art which they contain. We can here 

 only enumerate the principal. 



The cathedral of St.-Sauveur, in Staen Street, is externally an ugly 

 brick building; but the interior is the finest in Bruges. It dates 

 from 1358, and contains several curious paintings by Hemling and 

 others, and a series of monumental brasses. At a short distance from 

 the cathedral is the church of Onze-Vrouw (Notre-Dame), surmounted 

 by a tall brick tower : the interior is celebrated for its elaborately 

 carved pulpityand for the statue of the Virgin and Child by Michel 

 Angelo. In a chapel on the south side of the choir are the tombs of 

 Charles the Rash and his daughter Mary, wife of the emperor Maxi- 

 milian. Mary's monument was erected in 1 495 ; that of Charles was 

 erected at the cost of his great-grandson, Philip II., about 1568. 

 These monuments, so dear to the Flemish, were concealed from the 

 rapacity of the French by the beaftle of the church ; they were cleaned 



and re-gilt in 1848. Close to Notre-Dame is the hospital of St. John, 

 where the sick are tended by nuns, and in which are the celebrated 

 pictures executed by Hans Hemling in 1479 and presented to the 

 ! hospital in gratitude for the attention he received in it after the battle 

 of Nancy, in which he was wounded. The subjects of these admirable 

 ! paintings are the ' Virgin and Child with St. Catherine," the ' Decollation 

 I of St. John the Baptist,' and ' St. John at Patmos ; ' the two latter are 

 painted on the shutters. On a Reliquary are painted by the same artist 

 the Life and Martyrdom of St. Ursula, a series of small pictures which 

 rank, says Kugler, among the very best productions of the Flemish 

 school. In the chapel is an altar-piece by Hemliug, representing the 

 Adoration of the Magi : and at the sides the Nativity and the Purifi- 

 cation. The large gothic hall of the hospital, divided by piers and 

 pointed arches into aisles and partitioned off into wards and dormi- 

 tories, remains the same as when Hemling was tended in it. The 

 town-hall, an elegant gothic structure, dates from 1377. The long 

 series of statues of the counts of Flanders which filled the niches on 

 the facade was pulled down, smashed, and burnt in the great square 

 by the French in 1 792. In the grand hall of this building, remark- 

 able for its open roof of w'ood-work, tho public library is placed. 

 Adjoiuing the town-hall is the court-house, the council chamber of 

 which is decorated with a finely-carved wooden chimney-piece, 

 representing life-size statues of Charles V., Mary of Burgundy, 

 Charles the Bold, and Margaret of York. At the other end of the 

 town-hall is the curious chapel of the Saint Sang, under which is a 

 crypt dating from the 9th century, and said to be the oldest building 

 in Bruges. The former cathedral of St.-Donatus, which was demo- 

 lished by the French, stood opposite the town-hall, and contained the 

 remains of John Van Eyck, who died here in 1441. Its site is now 

 planted with trees, among which is a painted plaster-cast statue of 

 Van Eyck. The Academy of Painting in the Hot Poorters Huis, 

 which was formerly the factory of the Biscayans, ia rich in old 

 paintings by Van Eyck, Hemling, and others. On one side of the 

 Grande Place is the II idles, which dates from 1364, and is surmounted 

 by an elegant gotbic tower of great height, and commanding fine 

 views of tho town and surrounding country. This tower contains the 

 carillons, or chimes, which are the finest in Europe ; they are played 

 by machinery every quarter of an hour. Bruges was famous for its 

 chimes as early as the year 1300. On the south side of the Grande Place 

 is a house (Au Lion Beige) which was inhabited by Charles II. during 

 his exile from England. Of the many other remarkable structures in 

 Bruges we can only name the Beguinage, or convent of Beguine nuns, 

 at the west end of the town, and the English nunnery, founded about 

 a century ago, and admired for its beautiful chapel, in which part of 

 the offices are exquisitely chanted by the nuns. 



Six canals diverge from Bruges to Ghent, Sluis, Nieuport, Furnes, 

 Ypres, and Ostend. The high embankments along the caiiul to 

 Ghent arc immortalised by Dante in the 15th canto of his 'Inferno.' 

 The canal from Ostcud allows the passage from the sea to Bruges 

 of vessels of from 200 to 300 tons burden. There are besides a wet 

 dock and a dock for the building and repair of vessels, and ware- 

 houses for receiving goods in entrepot. In the 12th and 13th 

 centuries the port of Bruges is said to have been at Damme, now a 

 small village 3 miles N.E. from the town. Here were docks and 

 basins capable of holding 1000 sail, where now is a fertile plain. 



Bruges has an academy of the fine arts, an athenaeum or college, In 

 which lectures on every branch of education are given gratuitously, 

 a museum, a botanic garden, a public library, a cabinet of natural 

 history, and a school of navigation. The principal trade is in linen 

 and cotton manufactures, corn, flax, hemp, and colza. The manu- 

 factures of Bruges consist of linens, lace, woollen and cotton goods, 

 salt, refined sugar, earthenware, paper, and other minor branches of 

 industry Its trade, which had greatly decayed, is said to be partially 

 reviving under the influence of that general prosperity which Belgium 

 has enjoyed since her separation from Holland. The city however 

 still has a desolate air ; it is too large for its population, and the 

 passers-by in its streets seem few. 



(Murray's Bdyium and the Rhine, London, 1852.) 



BRCNN, the capital of Moravia, since 1641, when the seat of 

 government was transferred hither from Olmiitz, is situated in the 

 fork between the Zwittova and Schwartzava, at a distance of 92 miles by 

 railway N.N.E. from Vienna, 102 miles S.W. from Prague, and has about 

 40,000 inhabitants. It stands in the middle of a fine open country, 

 and partly on an eminence which commands some beautiful and 

 extensive prospects. The town is surrounded by a deep ditch and 

 high walls, and was formerly protected by the citadel of Spielberg, 

 constructed on the summit of a hill 816 feet in height; but 

 since the partial demolition of ita defences by the French, in 1809, 

 the Spielberg has been converted into a state-prison and a house of 

 correction. The fortifications of Briinn have been greatly strengthened 

 since 1850. East of the Spielberg is another eminence, the Frauzens- 

 berg, about 600 feet in height, along one side of which the residences 

 of the chapter and the new parts of Briinn have been erected. 

 Independently of the Spielberg, the town is about a mile and e 

 in circuit, and has four gates facing the cardinal points; the street 

 are irregular, narrow, and crooked, but well paved, provided with flag- 

 stones for foot passengers, and well lighted at night. There are 

 seven squares ornamented with fountains. The Large Square is ot 



