3 Best Sights in Bruges, Bruges and the Coast

Arguably the city's finest museum lies within a house built in the 15th century for the Gruuthuses, a powerful family who made their money on the exclusive right to sell "gruut," an herbal mixture used for flavoring beer. Louis, the patriarch behind its rise, was a businessman, diplomat, patron, and a lover of culture. Of course, its history didn't end there, and it has stood throughout the ups and downs of one of the great medieval cities. The museum tells the story of Bruges through its most powerful family and their legacy of art and relics, but also through the museum's own collection of crafts—lace, amber, porcelain, jewels—that formed the backbone of the city's trade.

Similar to the tablet-dominated Beer Museum around the corner, Historium Brugge uses technology (film and virtual reality) to depict the story of the city's golden age. Housed on the site of  the old Waterhalle, a vast warehouse that was once at the heart of the trading hub that was medieval Bruges, the museum makes fine use of its impressive setting. However, whether you learn anything depends less on your tolerance for history and more on your ability to absorb tales of romance played out on virtual reality headsets.

A row of 17th-century whitewashed almshouses originally built for retired shoemakers now holds an engaging Folklore Museum. Within each house is a reconstructed historic interior: a grocery shop, a living room, a tavern, a cobbler’s workshop, a classroom, a pharmacy, and a kitchen. Another wing holds a tailor’s shop and a collection of old advertising posters. You can end your tour at the suitably historic museum café, In de Zwarte Kat (the “Black Cat”).