I had always thought of Venice as the pinnacle of canal cities. In some ways, it still might be. But there is a quieter, dreamier town tucked into the north-west corner of Belgium that, once you visit, refuses to leave you alone. Its name is Bruges, capital of the province of West Flanders, and the world has long called it the “Venice of the North.”
What I found on my first visit to Bruges was not a smaller imitation of Venice. It was something rarer: a fully intact medieval city of canals that has been quietly tended for nearly nine centuries. Walk its cobbled streets at dawn, when mist rises off the water, and the bells of the Belfry tower drift across red-tiled roofs, and you understand why this place earned UNESCO World Heritage protection. Bruges is not preserved like a museum. It is lived in, prayed in, sailed through, and loved. This is the story of the canals, the people, and the centuries that made it.
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