Description of the attraction
The Beguinage is a lonely beguinage settlement within the city of Flanders and the Netherlands, which is an architectural ensemble consisting of residential buildings with cells and a chapel around a courtyard used as a vegetable garden or planted with flowers. The runners led an almost monastic lifestyle, but at the same time they did not take a vow of celibacy and did not donate their property to the community. They were engaged in needlework, raising orphans, caring for the sick and the elderly.
Currently, the beguinages are inhabited by elderly people, students and artists. However, many were turned into museum complexes, only a few managed to preserve the monastery life.
In Bruges, the beguinage is one of the city's main attractions. It is located on the shores of Lake Minnewater. After crossing the bridge through the gate with the inscription: “1776”, you will find yourself along a paved path, planted with elms, into an irregularly shaped courtyard, around which low dwellings of beguines are built. On the north side is the Church of St. Elizabeth, and on the east side is the abbess's house adjoining the chapel, whose simplicity epitomizes charity and religious life in Flanders.
