Belfry of Bruges: Historic Old Town Experience
UNESCO World Heritage classified old town of Bruges seen from the Belfry.
If you’re traveling to the UNESCO World Heritage classified city of Bruges I recommend a visit to the Belfry of Bruges. The climb to the viewing platform is tough, but a simple technique enabled me to photograph through the protective security wire.
The 83 meter high Belfry of Bruges is a bell tower. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage listed building in 1999, the 366 step climb to the Belfry, or Belfort, passes a magnificent medieval instrument called a carillon. From the top great views showcase this once rich and vibrant medieval city.
Flat, compact and, with almost no traffic allowed in the old town, it’s an easy and safe city to explore by foot or on one of Bruges wonderful canal tours.
In fact Bruges is one of my favorite European destinations and I had loads of fun photographing the old town of Bruges.
Boasting historic market squares, well preserved medieval architecture, picturesque canals and cobblestone streets, you’ll find Bruges to be an idyllic, romantic and culturally rich travel destination.
During my own exploration I embarked on a night photography adventure of the picture perfect old town of Bruges.
Of course, many of the old town’s most recognizable sites, such as the fabulous Belfry, are showcased in the classic In Bruges motion picture film.
Featuring a star studded cast, including actors Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes and Clémence Poésy, In Bruges is an absolute hoot and a great introduction to the architectural splendor of Bruges.
Needless to say, if you’re looking to explore Belgian beer, chocolate and waffles then Bruges, or Brugge in the local Flemish language dialect, is a great place to do so.
What to Expect at the Belfry of Bruges
Constructed in several phases between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Belfry of Bruges symbolizes the wealth and prestige enjoyed by this once powerful trading centre.
It’s no wonder then that the Belfry is regarded as a significant architectural achievement of the medieval age.
As you ascend the narrow and winding 366 step climb you’ll pass by the Treasury, where the city’s stamps, seals and funds were stored.
The next level up features the carillon, an historically important musical instrument that dates back to the 16th century.
Consisting of 47 cup-shaped bells, 26 of which were cast in the 19th century, the total weight of the bells is around 27.5 tonnes.
The carillon is played by a carillonneur from a central keyboard, known as a clavier. The carillonneur sounds the bells by pressing their fists down onto the clavier’s large wooden keys and, in the case of the bigger, heavier brass bells, by activating foot pedals.
The carillon in the Belfry of Bruges also features a massive 9,000 kg drum that plays automatically every 15 minutes.
Showcasing melodic and harmonic qualities, the music produced on a carillon can be highly expressive.
It would be worthwhile trying to schedule your visit to the Belfry of Bruges to coincide with one of the performances by the city carillonneur, Wim Berteloot.
Wim performs live concerts on the carillon, from inside the Belfry, on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year.
In addition to producing delightful music, carillons have historically been employed as an alarm, warning of fire or attack from invading forces, and as a featured highlight in social and religious events.
It’s important to recognize that the Belfry of Bruges is a popular tourist site. To avoid having to join a queue to purchase a ticket, it’s a good idea to book online.
What’s more, even with a pre-purchased ticket, you may still have to wait in line. You see, for safety reasons, there’s a limit to the amount of people that are allowed inside the attraction at any one time.
Once you reach the top of the bell tower you’ll want to catch your breath and spend time taking in the views of the old town before descending.
But be warned, the narrow depth of the steps, together with variations in their structure and surface, means you’ll need to navigate your way back down to ground level with care.
Belfry of Bruges Location and Opening Hours
You’ll find the Belfry of Bruges ideally situated just off the Markt (Market Square) in the centre of the old town. It’s an easy walk from many of Bruges other tourists attractions and close to a range of cafes and restaurants.
Opening hours for the Belfry of Bruges does vary throughout the year, but can be summarized as follows:
Summer (April 1 - November 2)
Daily from 9 am till 8 pm
Winter (November 3 - March 31)
Sunday to Friday 10 am till 6pm
Saturday 9 am till 8 pm
Assumption Day (August 15)
9 am till 12:30 pm
Assumption Day is an important public holiday in Belgium. As a consequence opening hours at the Belfry of Bruges are reduced.
Christmas period (December 26 - December 30)
December 24 (Christmas Eve) from 9 am till 4 pm
December 25 (Christmas Day) CLOSED
December 26 till December 30 from 9 am till 8 pm
December 31 (New Year’s Eve) from 9 am till 4 pm
January 1 (New Years Day) CLOSED
Variations to the above times may occur, for maintenance work and special events, throughout the year. For more information consult the Belfort/Belfry official website where you’ll also be able to book tickets online.
Please note:
Be aware that to enter the Belfort you’ll need to arrive at least one hour before closing time. That’s because it takes a good 20 minutes simply to ascend to the top of the Belfry.
What Makes it A Successful Photo?
It was late afternoon when I made my own way up the steep 366 steps of the Belfry to the top of the Bell Tower. Making a decent quality photo looking down on the famous medieval city of Bruges was foremost in my mind.
Fortunately, the light was quite soft, which allowed me to reveal a lot of detail in the scene. However, the light was far from epic.
What saved the day for me was the interesting nature of the scene before me and the elevated angle of view from which I made the photo at the top of this post.
These two elements made carrying my camera gear up the Bell Tower worthwhile.
I spent several days exploring the old town of Bruges. During that time I concluded that the tones, textures and shapes present in many of the buildings, bridges and statues would look best in black and white.
However, when viewed from the elevated position of the Belfry, I decided that a more encompassing overview of the old town, dominated by the orange and red rooftops, would be more appealing in color.
The result certainly isn’t fine art and, to my way of thinking, not even close to a portfolio level image. Nonetheless, I feel it’s a successful photo and I’m glad I make it.
Actually, my rationale is quite simple and can be summarized as follows:
I was there, I climbed all those steps, and this photo proves that fact
I wanted to photograph the view before me to remember my visit to the Belfry and the time I spent in Bruges
Of course these are the kind of motivations underpinning why most folks make photos. After all, we all make photos to document our lives as a way of preserving the relationships, activities and important events we experience along the journey.
Fundamentally, photography is a kind of time capsule that preserves specific moments of time for posterity.
But while the photos I make align with this concept, the primary intention behind my photography is to transcend that basic criteria.
To that end I work hard to make photos that showcase the beauty of our world, and its people, to an ever wider audience.
I consider it to be my primary purpose in life, the reason I blog and the fundamental mission of this website.
“Ultimately, I create photos that explore the human condition and the transitory, transformational and transcendental nature of light as a conduit through which we are able to experience that which exists on the edge of our understanding.”
Having said that, there are times when a simple photo documentation of what’s in front of my camera’s lens will suffice.
I hope for more but, in the case of this particular scene, it wasn’t until I’d climbed the steep steps leading up to the Belfry and looked down and out across the old town below me that I had any idea what I’d be dealing with.
Dramatic weather and/or amazing light may well have produced an epic result. But with limited movement and lens focal lengths available to me, a more typical postcard view was the best I could hope for.
Given the struggle to have reached this elevated position, I was happy to be rewarded with an interesting view and to be able to make a decent photo that adequately represented that outlook.
It’s good to remember that the photos you make are not just about the location or individual depicted. They’re as much about yourself, as an individual, creative being, and your own, personal interactions with the places and people you photograph.
Never forget the context in which a photo was made. After all, art goes well beyond mere documentation.
Your best photos showcase your own, unique worldview and speak to the relationships formed between you, what you photograph and your viewing audience.
The final outcome of those interactions is dependent upon how the viewer interprets the content depicted, any message or meaning they derive from your photos and any opinions and judgements they form about you based upon their own worldview.
Making Photos from the Belfry in Bruges
During the climb I did my best to make a few interesting pics of what was inside the bell tower, while making sure not to impede the progress of younger and fitter folk wanting to get past me as they ascended to the Belfort.
But it wasn’t until I’d reached the viewing platform, at the top of the Belfry, that I realized it was the only designated and convenient place from which to make photos of the town below.
In fact my photo showcasing the overview of the old town of Bruges was made through a wire security fence looking out from the viewing platform at the top of the Belfort.
The idea of the wire being, no doubt, a disincentive for the throwing of rubbish and foreign bodies (including the odd tourist) down into the city square below.
Perhaps it’s more correct to say that the security fence is there, not so much as a barrier to enjoyment, but for the security of visitors. And that’s, of course, totally reasonable.
The wire is unsightly, and some folk might prefer that an acrylic or glass screen be used to protect folk on the viewing platform. But those types of screens get dirty and, at that height, they’d be difficult to keep clean.
Transparent surfaces that are dirty can also accentuate haze when viewing or making photos of distant scenes.
Frankly, with a few exceptions, photographing through dirty acrylic or glass can be really detrimental to the quality of your photos.
Doing so often results in a loss of sharpness, detail, color saturation and, in some cases, the introduction of unwanted sunspots into your photos.
To be able to make a sharp photo through wire or bars it’s necessary to position your camera as close to the bars as possible.
If you’re lucky, the wire or bars in question won’t be too thick and, by placing your camera’s lens right up in front of it, you may be able to render the wire so far out of focus that, to all intensive purposes, it becomes invisible in the photos you make.
By focusing your camera’s lens on a more distant subject or focal point within the scene, and by selecting a physically wide aperture (e.g., f/4 or wider), the effect will be emphasized.
If you’re lucky you can effectively photograph through the wire or bars and produce a result that, pretty much, disappears the wire or bars in question.
Mind you, if you’re using your mobile phone’s built in camera, rather than a dedicated DSLR or Mirrorless camera, this may not even be an issue.
By placing your phone right up against the barrier in question you’ll often be able to pop your lens just inside the wire or bars to make a photo without these obstacles becoming a distraction.
It’s a technique that can work equally well when photographing wildlife, at a safe distance, through bars at a zoo.
Of course you would be doing so at your own risk and, if there’s a restricted area that’s been established to keep you away from the fence line, then please ensure you don’t cross it.
You understand I’m not suggesting that you poke your DSLR or Mirrorless camera’s lens through the bars at a zoo. Nor am I suggesting you climb over any physical barriers designed to separate you from the edge of a wildlife enclosure.
I’m simply saying that when the bars are positioned close together you can, on occasions, do the following:
Photograph though the bars by moving your lens as close to them as possible
Focus on a more distant subject
Employ a shallow depth of field to achieve the desired result
With luck, the out of focus wire will blur to the extent that it provides an aesthetically pleasing effect to the area surrounding the primary subject in the picture.
The thinner the bars the better your results are likely to be.
View from the Belfry of Bruges of the UNESCO World Heritage town.
Just for fun I’ve added a black and white rendering of the very same photo for your perusal.
I think this is a good practice to follow, from time to time, in your own photography practice to understand which subjects or scenes are best suited to each medium.
In this case I’m a bit surprised with the results, as I thought the textures and shapes within the buildings would have produced a better result in black and white.
I think now that the color image has produced a more positive result, while the black and white rendering is somewhat reminiscent of the, sometimes, romanticized sameness of medieval (and even tenement) housing from days gone by.
It’s true that there are other things I can do to the black and white version to produce an even better result.
However, for the sake of comparison with the original color image, I thought it was important to stick with a fairly straightforward black and white rendering.
So which of the two is more successful?
It’s dependent upon the photographer’s intentions, the context in which each version of the image is displayed and, probably more importantly, on the relative success of each photo to elicit an emotive response from the viewing audience.
From my point of view the original color photo wins. Having said that, I might revisit the black and white version with the intention of visually separating tones through more aggressive post processing.
Should You Visit the Belfry in Bruges?
The fact is you can see and make perfectly decent photos of the Belfry, from ground level, while visiting the Markt (Market Square) in Bruges. And if you’re able to, you should do so at different times of the day.
Try to photograph the Belfry when it’s lit, either with the sun behind you or, to enhance the textural qualities on the surface of the structure, with the aid of gentle side light raking across the building.
For a more evocative representation photograph the Belfry at dusk and into the evening when it, and other important buildings around Market Square, will be illuminated with strategically positioned artificial lighting.
Actually, I had a lot of fun photographing Bruges at night.
Frankly, climbing the Belfry was a struggle for me, particularly given I had to make the ascent while carrying a heavily loaded camera backpack.
Have no doubt the undertaking becomes more difficult as you ascend the bell tower. The steps get progressively steeper, and the ceiling lower, as you climb higher.
I kid you not, I was on all fours climbing some of the 366 steps up to the Belfry of Bruges.
However, regardless of the uncomfortable nature associated with climbing the bell tower, and the difficulty in making the photos I’d hoped for, I found the experience to be well worth the effort.
Needless to say, I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t at least tried to have done so.
Having said that, if you’re extremely tall and/or are physically restricted by issues with your mobility, then you need to seriously consider whether it’s worthwhile making the effort in the first place.
I’d certainly recommend the climb up to the Belfry if you’re looking for an interesting and physically challenging activity during your own visit to Bruges.
There’s no doubt that it’s an exhilarating, albeit exhausting experience and quite a change from the art gallery circuit and leisurely walking and canal tours you’ll likely be undertaking within the Bruges tourist precinct.
If nothing else the experience of climbing the Belfort will likely blow some cobwebs out of the pipes for anyone who’s just arrived on their Bruges city break.
