Worth a Detour
Beguinage and Minnewater
A peaceful courtyard of whitewashed houses founded in 1245, next to the Minnewater lake and its swans.
- Open
- Every day
- Price
- Free
- Time Needed
- 45 minutes
- Address
- Begijnhof, 8000 BrugesDirections
- Getting There
- A 10-minute walk from the station, or south from the Church of Our Lady.
Why Go
Beguines, religious women who lived together without taking vows, built this enclosure of white houses around a garden of trees, carpeted with daffodils in spring. Benedictine nuns live here now, and visitors are asked to keep quiet. It's part of a UNESCO listing of Flemish beguinages.
Next to it, the Minnewater, the 'Lake of Love', was once the harbor basin where barges from Ghent tied up.
Nearby in Bruges
Go Next
1–3 of 6
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About 29 miles away
Trenches and vast cemeteries of the Great War.
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