Gruuthuse Museum

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the Dijver, a stone's throw from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, the Gruuthuse mansion is a characteristic example of a late medieval urban residence of prestige. Its name refers to the *gruut* right, the tax on *gruut*, the blend of herbs used to flavour beer, from which the family drew its revenue. The lords of Gruuthuse settled near the bridge around 1425. The brick residence adopted an L-shaped plan dominated by a tall stair tower, a typical model of luxury Gothic domestic architecture. The site is above all associated with Lodewijk van Gruuthuse (1422–1492), a Knight of the Golden Fleece and servant of the dukes of Burgundy, who enlarged the complex and in 1472 had an oratory built opening directly onto the choir of the neighbouring church. His motto, “Plus est en vous”, still appears on a carved stone at the nearby Arentshuis. The house later passed to the Spanish crown and, in the seventeenth century, housed the mont-de-piété (a pawnshop), before being acquired by the city in 1875. The architect Louis Delacenserie carried out a thorough restoration from 1883 to 1895 in the neo-Gothic style, and a monumental neo-Gothic portal now opens onto the Dijver. Turned into a museum of applied arts, it reopened in 2019 after five years of work. Tapestries, stained glass, sculptures, lace and Burgundian manuscripts there trace the history of Bruges. The mansion is included in the Dijver urban site, protected by a Flemish ministerial decree of 25 October 2018.