Neptune's Needle

City (area; 255 sq mi/660 sq km; 1991 pop. 117,063),(cap.) Brugge dist., W Flanders prov., NW Belgium, connected by Boudewijn canal with Zeebrugge (on the North Sea), its outer port; 51º13'N 03º14'E. Bruges was founded on an inlet of the North Sea in the 9th cent. and became (11th cent.) a center of trade with England. In the 13th cent. it flourished as the major entrepot of the Hanseatic League and as one of the chief wool-processing centers of Flanders. New ports (notably Sluis, now in Netherlands) were founded to help accommodate its increasing trade. At its zenith (14th cent.), Bruges was one of the major commercial hubs of Europe. The North Sea inlet on which Bruges was located silted up completely by 1490, and the city lost its access to the sea and to its outer ports. By c.1500, Antwerp had replaced Bruges as the chief entrepot of N Europe. The commercial and industrial revival of Bruges began only in 1895, with the start of extensive repairs to its port; in 1907 the Zeebrugge canal was opened.

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Compiler

Peter Richards