Kruispoort gate

This guide to the Kruispoort gate in Bruges begins with what's missing: of an original complex with a front gate, eight towers and two bridges, only the twin towers and stone passage between them remain. It traces three different gates on this spot, from the first around 1300 through the one destroyed in 1382 when Philip van Artevelde's army from Ghent stormed Bruges, to the larger fortress built afterward under masons Jan van Oudenaerde and Maarten van Leuven. You'll hear how the front gate finally came down in 1760, and what has since taken over the ground where it once stood. Walk through the passage and note how little of the original fortress had to survive for the gate to still feel whole.