The story of the hosts in the cesspool

In the last story I told you about the Simon Stevin square. Well, next to the fun story about the square and its sculpture there is another rather amusing thing to tell.

I mentioned the best chocolate store in the city being “The Chocolate Line”.
This building has some (hi)story !

In 1700, the building was an inn called “The White Horse”. No, not the “Prancing Pony”, that’s in the Lord of the Rings books and movies.
Nothing special about it, if it weren’t for a young man of 24 who stayed there for one night.
Guillaume Van Lee wasn’t a special man who did anything extraordinary in his life, so when he decided to choose the easy way to get rich he had no idea what the consequences would be.
Close by there is the cathedral of Saint Salvator where there were at that moment several chapels inside. When you look inside a church, you can see separate chapels on the side. Those were donated, installed by rich people or guilds from different professions.
Guillaume broke in the cathedral on the night of June 15^th 1700 and took a pyx with him. A pyx is a round container (used in the catholic churches), mostly in silver or gold, to hold the consecrated host (bread). This particular one held 400 hosts, so it was a big one!

Guillaume was feeling pretty confident, because after the theft he stayed for the night at the inn “The White Horse”. On his room he looked at his loot. The pyx was made of silver, that was really useable. The hosts on the other hand were worth nothing.
So he threw all 400 hosts in the toilet. Well, toilet… In those days that was a cesspool with some planks over it.
Guillaume left the city the very next day. He travelled to Sluis, a neighbouring city (today that’s just across the border in the Netherlands). When he tried to sell the pyx to a smith, the man found it strange that this shabby-looking man brought in such an expensive item. The smith alerted the guards and Guillaume was taken prisoner.
After a little bit of “interrogation techniques from the Middle Ages” he confessed he stole the pyx in Bruges. So he was brought back to the city. On June 26^th Guillaume was punished for his crime.
I must confess, in the Middle Ages they were pretty nasty. First the hands were cut off, for the stealing. Then he was strangled to a pole, his body was burned and the ashes scattered outside the city walls (no holy ground).

The problem of the cesspool was to be taken care of now.

Imagine yourself being in those times, religion was a really biiiiig thing! Throwing hosts in a toilet, that was sacrilege!
I’m not making this up, but they tried to find all the hosts in the cesspool! Yes, going through all that sh!t. Of course you can imagine that this was impossible. So they just emptied the cesspool and buried the contents on the cemetery of Saint Salvator. Yes, they buried a pile of crap.

The chapel that was built

Because the hosts weren’t found, the ground of the inn was considered sacred so the inn was demolished and a small chapel in honour of the Saint Sacrament was build.

During the French period, this chapel was sold in public and destroyed.

But, remember now, throwing a host in the toilet can have big consequences !

Simon Stevin square

Daily a lot of people visit this square, to find the best chocolate in the country at the “Chocolate Line”.

But the square has a funny story in its past.

The square today

Before the square became a square, there was the “Westvleeshuis”, a slaughterhouse. But with the modern times coming and hygiene becoming more important, the slaughterhouse didn’t meet up for the new standards. So it was that the slaughterhouse, which was standing there since the 14^th century was demolished in 1819 and the square was a fact.

The city of Bruges wanted to give this new square a name, and they proposed to give it the name of Simon Stevin.

The people of Bruges disapproved this choice. Imagine yourself in the 1800’s, where everyone is really, deeply catholic and big lover and defender of their city.

Still today most inhabitants of Bruges think that he wasn’t of Bruges. And “oh my God, he was a protestant!”.

Let’s see who he was.

He was a scientist who was born in Bruges in 1548. He was active in many areas of science and engineering. It was him who translated various mathematical terms into Dutch and gave mathematics the Dutch name we still use today: “wiskunde”, wis+kunde i.e. “the art of what is certain”.

And… he was a protestant, and that is why he left Bruges in 1571 to move to the Netherlands. He’d come back to Bruges in 1577 and was appointed cityclerk by the aldermen of the city, which he was until 1581 when he left Bruges again.
He stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of is life and dies in 1620. It is not certain where he died (The Hague or Leiden).

So, the people of Bruges were correct to say he was a protestant, but he was of Bruges !

 

The square with the temporary statue

Now, with the inauguration of the square the city of Bruges had an order of a sculpture made. The plan was that the inauguration would take place on July 26^th 1846. But there was a little hick-up in this planning, because the bronze sculpture wasn’t ready yet.

So a backup plan was fabricated on the spot. A plaster sculpture was made and placed where the bronze one should come.

Nobody knew on the moment of the celebrations that they were looking at a plaster statue.

The following months, the weather conditions gave us a problem, as we do get some rain from time to time. The bronze colour was coming off as the plaster wasn’t fit to withstand these conditions!

So every so often, in the middle of the night the old statue was removed and a new came in place.

This kept on going for over a year, until finally in September 1847 the bronze sculpture was ready.

Bruges and the movies

In my previous blog I talked about the Navy in Bruges. Well, in the book I was reading about the military history of Bruges I came upon something nice to tell, next to the Navy blog of course.

Cinemas (or movie theatres if you’d like) in Bruges! Even the city that thrives on the middle-ages-look was amazed by the moving images that occurred at the end of the 19^th century.
The very  first projection of a movie was on September 5^th 1896 in a room of the hotel “Den Keizerlijken Arend” (The Emperial Eagle), right across the city theatre. In that very room came the “Cinema Edison”,  later the “Ciné Ritz”. Now there is a book store to be found where the hotel was (Standaard Boekhandel).

The first, real movie-theatre was at the Market Square, the “Grand Cinéma Pathé Frères”. Not the smallest company as you know that Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in theaters prior to a feature film. Today, Pathé is active in film production and distribution, cinema chains, and television networks.

It was to be found a little to the right of Café Cranenburg. The theatre opened on May 2^nd 1909 but of course there were other people with the idea of making money on this new invention of moving images. One of those new theatres found a really interesting place to lure many viewers, in the Langestraat, close to the military barracks !

Old picture of "The Swan"- now known as "Bauhaus"

Andreas De Ceuninck bought a large house in the Langestraat, on the corner of the Stoelstraat. A few years later, in January 1912 he started installing his own movie-theatre, “De Zwaan” (The Swan).

The interior was so designed a room of 5,60 by 18,40 meter (18,4 by 60,40 feet) could hold 450 people to watch the movie (that is including the balcony). They were not the comfortable seats you find in the movie-theatres today !
But soldiers are used to much less comfort…

Even the programming was military inspired. The movie “The battle of Waterloo” was shown daily, and even three times on Sunday !

The First World War made an end of all this joy and the movie-theatre “The Swan” had to close. The Germans used the house as stocking room. After the war Andreas De Ceuninck was too old to restart, so the movie-theatre never returned.

The house of “The Swan” still exists today, but where the cinema used to be, now you can find the hostel “Bauhaus”!

So if you’re looking for a place to sleep and you end up here, imagine: this used to be a cinema !

Bruges and the Navy

When I was reading a book on the military history of Bruges, I stumbled upon a fun fact. And since I served on board of naval ships, I found it interesting to figure out how close the city is connected to the start of the Belgian Navy !

In 1918, with the chaotic ending of the First World War, the Germans left some warships behind in their retreat. Twelve torpedo boats, some towing boats and fifteen fast motorboats for use against submarines. 
And there you have it, Belgium got –unwillingly- a fleet.

First, the fleet was transferred to Antwerp, but with a lack of the needed infrastructure there the fleet moved to the coast in 1920.

With owning ships, men needed to be trained to work on board. Captain Weverbergh, a Frenchman of Belgian origin, managed to get the French cruiser d’Entrecasteaux in loan. The ship came to … Bruges! A dock was used for the ship. It was the same dock used by the Germans in 1914-18 as a hiding place for their U-boats.

The training ship "d'Entrecasteaux"

The cruiser was build in 1894, a capacity of 8000 ton and heavy armoured hull. The crew held 22 officers and 480 NCO’s and sailors. The ship arrived in Bruges on May 27^th 1923.

In that year a new unit was formed, the KTZ (Korps Torpedoboten en Zeelieden – Corps Torpedoboats and Sailors), which trained sailors, maintained the fleet and was the “police on the waters”.

Unfortunately, due to the lousy pay and the lacking of a decent status people soon quit the first chance they had. 
So, on March 31^st 1927 (only a few years later) this was the end of the first Navy of Belgium.  The ship d’Entrecasteaux was towed to France, it served as training-ship for a while in Poland but in 1939 it was destroyed in a fire.

It was until 1949 the Navy again was formed in Ostend. And on September 10^th 1952 the base in Sint-Kruis (Bruges) was opened as a training-base.

So, in history the very first Navy-unit was situated in Bruges. Not many people know this, but now you do !

“Brugse Zot”, in English “Fool of Bruges”

If you learn about Belgium, maybe you’ll have read about the nicknames the habitants of the cities get. And, strangely enough each and every one is proud of that name!

A few examples (before we go to Bruges) are Ghent, where the nickname is “stroppendrager”, that’s a “noose-bearer”. In the 1500’s the people of Ghent were discontent under the ruling of Charles V. He wanted to expand the territories but that was at the expense of the taxpayer. So a revolution was called and Charles came all the way from Madrid to crush the rebels in Ghent. He succeeded in 1540 to ‘liberate’ the city. As proof of defeat he had the nobility of Ghent walk the streets of the city, bear feet and with a noose around the neck. The name “noose-bearer” was born. Still today it is a symbol against the tyranny.

Noose-bearers during the "Gentse Feesten"

Inhabitants of Mechelen (a city between Antwerp and Brussels) for example have the nickname of “maneblussers” or “moon-extinguishers”. History says that in the night of January 27^th -28^th 1687 there was a full moon with little clouds. A man who came from a bar, stumbled direction home and when he looked up to the tower thought it was on fire. In no time he had people wake up, sounding the alarm for fire. People who looked at the tower had the same impression, the tower was on fire! Everyone was gathering at the square in front of the burning tower… and then the clouds opened up and the moon came through. It was at that moment the people, ready to fight the ‘fire’, realized it was a reddish moonshine that gave the impression of a burning tower. The nickname “moon-extinguishers” was a fact!

The tower of Mechelen "on fire"

Now the name of Bruges, this story began in 1488. Maximilian of Austria was not loved by the people of the city. The people wanted more independency in rule for the city, and they held Max more than 4 months captive in a house (house Craenenburg on the Market square). When Maximilian was free he forbade any more fairs, markets or other activities in Bruges. Financially that was not interesting for the people of Bruges as you can imagine. At a certain moment the people found a perfect time for a big party, with the intention of satisfying Max and getting him in a good mood.
The festivities went on for some time, Maximilian saw everybody happy, partying, going crazy. The mayor saw that Max had a smile on his face and knew this was the moment to ask if it wasn’t possible to allow fairs and markets again. And maybe (Max had to be in a good mood, with the beer flowing abundantly) if there was a chance for the construction of a new ‘madhouse’. The legend says that Maximilian answered: “You don’t need a new madhouse, just close the gates of the city”.
The name “fools of Bruges” was born.
Just so you’d know: “mad” or “crazy” wasn’t a referral to being nuts of insane. It’s referring to the quirky character of the people of Bruges, with their love of humor and partying.

And, just so you'd know: from every nickname you can find a beer !
Brugse Zot is a very nice beer to try !