Eekhout Abbey

The Groeningemuseum is a municipal museum in Bruges, Belgium, built on the site of the medieval Eekhout Abbey. It houses a collection of Flemish and Belgian painting covering six centuries, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The museum's highlights include Early Netherlandish paintings, works by Renaissance and Baroque masters, as well as a selection of paintings from the 18th and 19th century neo-classical and realist periods, milestones of Belgian symbolism and modernism, masterpieces of Flemish Expressionism and many items from the city's collection of post-war modern art.

The Brugse Vrije was a castellany in the county of Flanders, often called in English "the Franc of Bruges". It included the area around Bruges, and was bordered by the North Sea, the Westerschelde and the Yser river. The city of Bruges was separated from the castellany in 1127. Since then the city and the Vrije were considered as separate customary law areas. The Brugse Vrije was a rich agricultural region. It had its own burgrave, who was seated at the Burg, a square in Bruges, and became part of the Four Members of Flanders at the end of the 14th century, together with the three major cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres. The Brugse Vrije sat in the meetings of the States of Flanders.

The Old Civil Registry is one of the oldest Renaissance buildings in Flanders. It is located on Burg Square in Bruges, between the Manor of the Franc of Bruges and the City Hall.

The City Hall (Dutch: ) of Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, is a landmark building and the seat of that city. Built in a late-Gothic monumental style between 1376 and 1421, it is one of the oldest city halls in the former Burgundian Netherlands. It is located on Burg Square, the area of the former fortified castle in the centre of Bruges.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood (Dutch: Heilig-Bloedbasiliek, French: Basilique du Saint-Sang) is a Roman Catholic basilica in Bruges, Belgium. The church houses a relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders. Built between 1134 and 1157 as the chapel of the Count of Flanders, it was promoted to a minor basilica in 1923. The basilica in Burg square consists of a lower and upper chapel. The lower chapel, dedicated to St. Basil the Great, is a dark Romanesque structure that remains virtually unchanged. The venerated Passion relic is in the upper chapel, which was rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 16th century and renovated in the 19th century in Gothic Revival style.

Burg Square is a square and former fortress in Bruges. It is one of the main squares of the city.

St. Donatian's Cathedral (Dutch: Sint-Donaaskathedraal) was a Roman Catholic cathedral in Bruges, Belgium. Located on the Burg, one of the main squares in the city, it was the largest church in Bruges. The cathedral was destroyed in 1799 in the wake of the dissolution of the Diocese of Bruges during the aftermath of the French Revolution.

The Gruuthusemuseum is a museum of applied arts in Bruges, located in the medieval Gruuthuse, the house of Louis de Gruuthuse. The collection ranges from the 15th to the 19th century.

Het Steen was a medieval building on the Burg Square in Bruges, Belgium. Between the late 11th and late 13th centuries, it served as the residence of the Counts of Flanders.

The Provostry of St. Donatian (Dutch: Sint-Donaasproosdij or Proosdij van de kerkelijke heerlijkheid van Sint-Donaas) is a Baroque building on the Burg Square in Bruges, Belgium. Built in the 17th century, it served as the headquarters of the ecclesiastical seigniory of St. Donatian.

The Church of Our Lady (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) is a Roman Catholic church in Bruges, Belgium, dating mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Its 115.6-metre-high (379 ft) tower remains the tallest structure in the city and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world (after St. Mary's Church in Lübeck and St. Martin's Church in Landshut, both in Germany). The church demonstrates the Gothic style in the prominent Flying buttresses on the exterior which were constructed in the 1270s and 80s. The nave contains cross-vaults and black and white tiled flooring. The interior demonstrates the heavily ornamented Baroque style in the side aisles and chancel. One of the chapels in the church was created in 1482 for a wealthy man named Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, as his personal worship area.

The Madonna of Bruges is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo of the Virgin and Child. Michelangelo's depiction of the Madonna and Child differs significantly from earlier representations of the same subject, which tended to feature a pious Virgin smiling down on an infant held in her arms. Instead, Jesus stands upright, almost unsupported, only loosely restrained by Mary's left hand, and appears to be about to step away from his mother. Meanwhile, Mary does not cling to her son or even look at him, but gazes down and away. It is believed the work was originally intended for an altar piece. If this is so, then it would have been displayed facing slightly to the right and looking down. The early 16th-century sculpture also displays the High Renaissance Pyramid style frequently seen in the works of Leonardo da Vinci during the late 1400s. Madonna and Child shares certain similarities with Michelangelo's Pietà, which was completed shortly before – mainly, Mary's flowing robe, and the movement of the drapery. The long, oval face of Mary is also reminiscent of the Pietà. The work is also notable in that it was the first sculpture by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. In 1504, it was bought by Giovanni and Alessandro Moscheroni (Mouscron) for 100 ducats. The Mouscron brothers were wealthy cloth merchants in Bruges, then one of the leading commercial cities in Europe. The sculpture was removed twice from Belgium after its initial arrival. The first was in 1794 after French Revolutionaries had conquered the Austrian Netherlands during the French Revolutionary Wars; the citizens of Bruges were ordered to ship it and several other valuable works of art to Paris. It was returned after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The second removal was in 1944, during World War II, with the retreat of German soldiers, who smuggled the sculpture to Germany enveloped in mattresses in a Red Cross truck. It was discovered a year later in Altaussee, Austria within a salt mine and again returned. It now sits in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium. This is represented in the 2014 film The Monuments Men.