Gruuthusemuseum
Gothic city palace of a beer-tax family, with a private chapel window looking straight into the church next door.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Gruuthusemuseum in Bruges follows the family's fortune from a medieval tax on beer flavoring that outlived the ingredient it taxed, to Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, the soldier, diplomat and book collector who spent it best. It traces his years hosting an exiled English king and cutting a private window straight into the church next door, and what happened once his protector, Mary of Burgundy, died and left him at the mercy of her husband. In 1491, the Order of the Golden Fleece itself accused him of treason. Look for the small window above the church choir that once let him watch mass without leaving home.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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