Bladelin House
Fifteenth-century merchant's palace whose courtyard once housed a branch of the Medici bank.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Bladelin House in Bruges follows Pieter Bladelin, treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece, who built this stone palace on Naaldenstraat around fourteen thirty-five purely to announce his own fortune, and traces what happened after he died childless. It centers on the Medici family of Florence, who opened a Bruges branch of their bank in the house, and on two carved courtyard portraits marking a Medici wedding. It follows Tommaso Portinari, who ran the branch and bought the house outright in fourteen eighty, as he lent heavily to Duke Charles the Bold to finance his wars. Look up at the slender staircase tower Bladelin built to be seen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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