Beguinage "Ten Wijngaerde"

This guide to the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde in Bruges asks what these women behind the walls actually were, tracing the community back to the 1240s, when Margaret of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders, granted land to pious women who wanted no husband and no mother superior. It follows the beguines' unusual freedom, their own money and houses, and the lace-making and nursing work that funded the community and its hospitals across Flanders. You'll hear why the Church never quite settled on what to call the arrangement. Cross the little bridge over the canal to enter the walled world the guide describes.