Boniface Bridge

This guide to Boniface Bridge in Bruges starts with an easy-to-miss stone bust by the far bank, of Juan Luis Vives, a scholar born in Valencia in 1492 who spent his final years just a short walk from where you stand. It traces his family's secret life as conversos, keeping old customs behind closed doors, and why the Spanish Inquisition took an interest in his mother back in 1491. You'll hear what happened to his family after he left Spain in 1509, and why he built a new life in Bruges instead of going home. The bridge itself looks medieval, but it dates only to 1910.