Daily a lot
of people visit this square, to find the best chocolate in the country at the
“Chocolate Line”.
But the
square has a funny story in its past.
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| The square today |
Before the
square became a square, there was the “Westvleeshuis”, a slaughterhouse. But
with the modern times coming and hygiene becoming more important, the
slaughterhouse didn’t meet up for the new standards. So it was that the
slaughterhouse, which was standing there since the 14th century was
demolished in 1819 and the square was a fact.
The city of
Bruges wanted to give this new square a name, and they proposed to give it the
name of Simon Stevin.
The people
of Bruges disapproved this choice. Imagine yourself in the 1800’s, where
everyone is really, deeply catholic and big lover and defender of their city.
Still today
most inhabitants of Bruges think that he wasn’t of Bruges. And “oh my God, he
was a protestant!”.
Let’s see
who he was.
He was a
scientist who was born in Bruges in 1548. He was active in many areas of
science and engineering. It was him who translated various mathematical terms
into Dutch and gave mathematics the Dutch name we still use today: “wiskunde”,
wis+kunde i.e. “the art of what is certain”.
And… he was
a protestant, and that is why he left Bruges in 1571 to move to the
Netherlands. He’d come back to Bruges in 1577 and was appointed cityclerk by
the aldermen of the city, which he was until 1581 when he left Bruges again.
He stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of is life and dies in 1620. It is not certain where he died (The Hague or Leiden).
He stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of is life and dies in 1620. It is not certain where he died (The Hague or Leiden).
So, the
people of Bruges were correct to say he was a protestant, but he was of Bruges
!
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| The square with the temporary statue |
Now, with
the inauguration of the square the city of Bruges had an order of a sculpture
made. The plan was that the inauguration would take place on July 26th
1846. But there was a little hick-up in this planning, because the bronze
sculpture wasn’t ready yet.
So a backup
plan was fabricated on the spot. A plaster sculpture was made and placed where
the bronze one should come.
Nobody knew
on the moment of the celebrations that they were looking at a plaster statue.
The
following months, the weather conditions gave us a problem, as we do get some
rain from time to time. The bronze colour was coming off as the plaster wasn’t
fit to withstand these conditions!
So every so
often, in the middle of the night the old statue was removed and a new came in
place.
This kept
on going for over a year, until finally in September 1847 the bronze sculpture
was ready.
