Lake of Love

This guide to the Lake of Love in Bruges opens by asking why a fixed number of swans has always glided across Minnewater, then reaches back to the 1488 revolt against the future emperor Maximilian of Austria, when furious citizens locked him in a house on the market square and turned on his advisor Pieter Lanchals, whose surname meant long neck. You'll hear what happened to Lanchals while Maximilian watched from a window he could not leave. Look toward the black tower near the bank, a modern sculpture built for the Bruges Triennial, and see what shape you find in its twisting stone.