Zilverpand Bruges

This guide to Zilverpand in Bruges traces the ground beneath its courtyards back to two Flemish abbeys, Oudenburg and Saint-Omer, that each kept a fortified refugiehuis here to shelter monks and their relics, deeds and silver whenever the countryside turned unsafe. It follows the Oudenburg refuge on Zilverstraat across roughly four centuries, then its unexpected turn into a boys' school, the Sint-Lodewijkscollege, in eighteen forty-six. From the early nineteen seventies it tracks what the city chose to tear down and what it insisted on keeping as the site changed hands again. Look for the handful of old facades still standing among the newer gables.