Bruges and the movies

In my previous blog I talked about the Navy in Bruges. Well, in the book I was reading about the military history of Bruges I came upon something nice to tell, next to the Navy blog of course.

Cinemas (or movie theatres if you’d like) in Bruges! Even the city that thrives on the middle-ages-look was amazed by the moving images that occurred at the end of the 19^th century.
The very  first projection of a movie was on September 5^th 1896 in a room of the hotel “Den Keizerlijken Arend” (The Emperial Eagle), right across the city theatre. In that very room came the “Cinema Edison”,  later the “Ciné Ritz”. Now there is a book store to be found where the hotel was (Standaard Boekhandel).

The first, real movie-theatre was at the Market Square, the “Grand Cinéma Pathé Frères”. Not the smallest company as you know that Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in theaters prior to a feature film. Today, Pathé is active in film production and distribution, cinema chains, and television networks.

It was to be found a little to the right of Café Cranenburg. The theatre opened on May 2^nd 1909 but of course there were other people with the idea of making money on this new invention of moving images. One of those new theatres found a really interesting place to lure many viewers, in the Langestraat, close to the military barracks !

Old picture of "The Swan"- now known as "Bauhaus"

Andreas De Ceuninck bought a large house in the Langestraat, on the corner of the Stoelstraat. A few years later, in January 1912 he started installing his own movie-theatre, “De Zwaan” (The Swan).

The interior was so designed a room of 5,60 by 18,40 meter (18,4 by 60,40 feet) could hold 450 people to watch the movie (that is including the balcony). They were not the comfortable seats you find in the movie-theatres today !
But soldiers are used to much less comfort…

Even the programming was military inspired. The movie “The battle of Waterloo” was shown daily, and even three times on Sunday !

The First World War made an end of all this joy and the movie-theatre “The Swan” had to close. The Germans used the house as stocking room. After the war Andreas De Ceuninck was too old to restart, so the movie-theatre never returned.

The house of “The Swan” still exists today, but where the cinema used to be, now you can find the hostel “Bauhaus”!

So if you’re looking for a place to sleep and you end up here, imagine: this used to be a cinema !

Bruges and the Navy

When I was reading a book on the military history of Bruges, I stumbled upon a fun fact. And since I served on board of naval ships, I found it interesting to figure out how close the city is connected to the start of the Belgian Navy !

In 1918, with the chaotic ending of the First World War, the Germans left some warships behind in their retreat. Twelve torpedo boats, some towing boats and fifteen fast motorboats for use against submarines. 
And there you have it, Belgium got –unwillingly- a fleet.

First, the fleet was transferred to Antwerp, but with a lack of the needed infrastructure there the fleet moved to the coast in 1920.

With owning ships, men needed to be trained to work on board. Captain Weverbergh, a Frenchman of Belgian origin, managed to get the French cruiser d’Entrecasteaux in loan. The ship came to … Bruges! A dock was used for the ship. It was the same dock used by the Germans in 1914-18 as a hiding place for their U-boats.

The training ship "d'Entrecasteaux"

The cruiser was build in 1894, a capacity of 8000 ton and heavy armoured hull. The crew held 22 officers and 480 NCO’s and sailors. The ship arrived in Bruges on May 27^th 1923.

In that year a new unit was formed, the KTZ (Korps Torpedoboten en Zeelieden – Corps Torpedoboats and Sailors), which trained sailors, maintained the fleet and was the “police on the waters”.

Unfortunately, due to the lousy pay and the lacking of a decent status people soon quit the first chance they had. 
So, on March 31^st 1927 (only a few years later) this was the end of the first Navy of Belgium.  The ship d’Entrecasteaux was towed to France, it served as training-ship for a while in Poland but in 1939 it was destroyed in a fire.

It was until 1949 the Navy again was formed in Ostend. And on September 10^th 1952 the base in Sint-Kruis (Bruges) was opened as a training-base.

So, in history the very first Navy-unit was situated in Bruges. Not many people know this, but now you do !