09/22/2024
Our next stop in Belgium 🇧🇪 was Bruges, and our first stop there was the Church of Our Lady.
This church (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) is a Roman Catholic church in Bruges, dating mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Its 115.6-metre-high (379 ft) tower remains the tallest structure in the city and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world (after St. Mary's Church in Lübeck and St. Martin's Church in Landshut, both in Germany.
The Church of Our Lady has a long construction history. The first Romanesque church was probably built on this site between 850 and 875 CE. All that remains is a foundation wall. An early gothic nave was added in the 12th century, around which an ambulatory and chapels in the classic French gothic style were built. The church was refurbished and the interior renovated during the subsequent centuries.