(in Flemish Brugge), a city of Belgium, capital of West Flanders, is situated in the midst of a fertile plain, intersected by the canals of Ghent, Ostend, and Sluys, in Lat. 51. 12. N. and Long. 3. 13. E. It is distant about 7 miles from the sea, 12 miles east of Ostend, 24 N.W. of Ghent, and 60 miles in the same direction from Brussels. The history of Bruges dates from a very remote period. In the seventh century of the Christian era it had emerged into importance; and its corporation of weavers, which in the best days of Bruges numbered 50,000 men, were already highly renowned in the time of Charlemagne. In the ninth century Bruges became subject to the counts of Flanders, who resided there, and made this city one of the most populous and wealthy in Europe by the great advantages and immunities which they offered to merchants and manufacturers. The privileges which the inhabitants sometimes received and sometimes exacted from their rulers, they guarded with the most jealous care, and not unfrequently rose in arms for their defence. Though Bruges, and Ghent, and other Flemish towns, owned a common lord, their interests were never identified, and they seldom let an opportunity pass of doing each other as much injury as possible. The ruinous consequences which this selfish policy entailed upon some of these cities, are admirably unfolded in Henry Taylor's Drama of Philip van Artevelde. From the ninth to the middle of the fourteenth century, Bruges was subject to the counts of Flanders. At that latter date it passed by marriage under the dominion of the dukes of Burgundy, under whom it attained the culminating point of its prosperity. The magnificence of the Flemish court during the entire period of its prosperity was such that no European monarch could equal or approach it. When the wife of Philippe-le-Bel of France visited Bruges at the beginning of the fourteenth century, so greatly was she impressed with the display of wealth and splendour, that she exclaimed, "There are hundreds here who have more the air of queens than myself." To such an extent was this extravagance ultimately carried, that Charles V. was obliged in the sixteenth century to repress it by severe sumptuary laws. In 1430, Philippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy, instituted at Bruges the chivalric order of the Golden Fleece, a compliment to the town, no small portion of whose prosperity arose from its woollen trade. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Bruges was the chief emporium of the cities of the Hanseatic league. Merchants from every quarter of the world found here a ready market for their goods. The rich argosies of Venice and Genoa came laden with the valuable produce of the East; ships of every nation took in and discharged their cargoes at the quays; the warehouses were filled with bales of wool from England, and silk from Persia. Not the least famous of the manufactures was that of tapestry, in which the people of Bruges acquired great skill a century before the looms of Beauvais or the Gobelins were set up. The prosperity of Bruges was undiminished till it passed under the dominion of the house of Hapsburg. For a violation of some of their prerogatives, the inhabitants imprisoned the Archduke Maximilian. A terrible vengeance was inflicted upon the town for this outrage. Its trade was transferred to Antwerp, and its ruin was ultimately completed by the religious persecutions of the bloody Duke of Alva at the end of the sixteenth century. Such of the inhabitants as escaped with their lives fled to England and introduced into that country many of the arts and manufactures which they and their forefathers had cultivated for many generations with such success. The contrast between the Bruges of the fifteenth century and the Bruges of our own day is as striking as it is painful. The present condition of the town is such as amply to justify the description of Wordsworth:

"In Bruges town is many a street Whence busy life hath fled, Where, without hurry, noiseless feet The grass-grown pavement tread."

The great circumference of the city, its numerous squares and streets, and the number and magnificence of its public buildings, all attest its former importance; while its scanty population, the absence of commercial life and enterprise, and the general air of desolation in which everything is enveloped, bear witness to its present insignificance. Its trade has of late years, however, begun to revive, and its great advantages in canal and railway communications, its spacious docks and excellent quays, and the great fertility of the surrounding country, may, if once secure, perhaps, restore it to its high place among cities. Of the public buildings of Bruges the most remarkable are the Church of Our Lady, containing a sculpture of the Virgin and Child, said to be by Michael Angelo; edifices in copper of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy, who are buried in the church; the cathedral of St. Sauveur, built of brick, but internally the handsomest church in Bruges, with some fine pictures by Hemling and Peter Porbus; the hospital of St. John, a charitable institution, where sick persons are attended by the sœurs de la charité; and the Hôtel de Ville, a small but handsome edifice, in the niches of which were statues of the old counts of Flanders, destroyed by French revolutionists in 1792. The belfry-tower in the great square is the most beautiful structure of the kind in Europe, and its chimes are the best in Belgium, where indeed all the chimes are good. It is still used as a convenient place from which the alarm can be communicated to all parts of the city in the case of fire, which is done during the day by a flag and at night by a lantern. In this same square is a house in which Charles II. resided during his exile from England. There is a convent of Béguines, and another of English Augustin nuns. The town is likewise well provided with the means of education. There is a medical school, to which is attached a museum of natural history and a botanical garden. For the higher departments of school training there is an excellent seminary, annually subsidized by government. The Academy of Painting is in a very flourishing condition, and offers many advantages to the student; admission is given gratis in drawing and architecture. The charitable institutions of Bruges are both numerous and well organized. They are all the more necessary, as the number of persons in the city requiring support amounts to more than 5000. In the poor-house alone there is accommodation for nearly 600 individuals, and it is almost always completely filled. The most important manufacture in Bruges is that of lace, in which nearly one-seventh of the population is engaged. It is now, however, beginning to decline. The other manufactures consist of linens, woollen and cotton goods, soap, leather, and tobacco. There are also some small breweries and distilleries, and some dyeing and bleaching establishments. All these are, however, comparatively insignificant compared with those from Bruges comprise the products of the rich agricultural district that surrounds the town; the imports include metals, dye woods, wines, cotton, and wool. Despite the number of canals, the inhabitants of Bruges are very ill supplied with water for domestic purposes; every house is accordingly provided with a tank or butt to receive the rain that falls. The water collected in the public tanks is distributed through the city in pipes. Of the canals the largest is that to Oostend, wide and deep enough to allow vessels of 500 tons to pass up from the sea. The ramifications of these canals intersect the city in all directions, and are crossed by upwards of fifty bridges, whence the Flemish name of the town is derived. Pop. in 1838, 44,374; in 1846, 49,508; in 1851, 50,698.