Dijver
Canal-side street where a herb-tax fortune built a lavish Burgundian palace.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Dijver in Bruges asks how the family behind the grand Gruuthuse palace beside you got rich off beer without ever brewing a drop. It traces the medieval herb blend called gruit, once used to flavor and preserve beer before hops, and the monopoly the Holy Roman Emperor granted over selling it. You'll hear how one Bruges family built a storehouse for those herbs on this very spot, took the name van der Gruuthuse, and how their descendant Lodewijk expanded it into the palace next door, later becoming an English earl. You're standing on top of that old storehouse.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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