<\/p>\n
A visitor sits among the daffodils in the courtyard of the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde of Bruges, Belgium, Tuesday March 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
A woman demonstrates lacemaking in the Beguinage of Lier, Belgium, during an open day on Saturday, March 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
Resident Brigitte Beernaert reads a newspaper inside a house of the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
Swans sleep outside the gate of the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
Brigitte Beernaert, left, and Jo Verplaetsen speak during an interview in a house inside the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde in Bruges, Belgium, Wednesday, April 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
BRUGES, Belgium (AP) \u2014 The clatter of suitcases rolling over cobblestones, motorboats chugging along a canal and visitors chattering in a smattering of languages provide a soundtrack to Bruges that makes it clear you are in one of Belgium\u2019s most touristic cities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And yet, about two dozen women residents and visitors have found a hidden sanctuary from its bustle in a spot over a small bridge and under an ornate arch with an engraved Latin phrase \u201csauvegarde,\u201d or \u201csafe place\u201d in English.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Nestled in a sea of yellow daffodils lies an oasis of calm and tranquility founded in 1245: the Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde of Bruges.<\/p>\n
For 22 years, Trees Dewever has called this beguinage her home. She said it provides “an overwhelming feeling of calm and I think we need that in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her neighbor, 23-year beguinage resident Jo Verplaetsen, said the spirit of the medieval shelter is today soothing and social.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach day you are thankful to be here,” she said.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
A refuge for women from medieval to modern woes<\/p>\n
However serene now, the beguinages emerged after the 12th century as an antidote to devastation.<\/p>\n
Conflicts in the Middle Ages ravaged the male population, creating a glut of widows and single women who needed some kind of stability. They often chose the looser rules of the beguinages instead of stricter convents, said Michel Vanholder, a volunteer at the Grand Beguinage Church of Mechelen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t want to go become nuns but nevertheless they wanted to live together without men because there were not enough men to marry,” he said.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Women who joined were called beguines, and while forbidden to marry while residing in the beguinages, they were allowed free egress, could own their own property and did not take religious vows of celibacy and poverty like nuns in adjacent convents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen who didn\u2019t want to become real nuns or religious could have an in-between form, becoming a beguine,” said Brigitte Beernaert, who moved into the Bruges beguinage more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Women in the beguinage often worked caring for the sick and poor, but also earned money with needlework and weaving lace. Some plowed profits back into the community.<\/p>\n
But the beguinages were at different times embraced and persecuted by the Vatican. One prominent beguine, the French Christian mystic Marguerite Porete, was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in 1310.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Novelists Ken Follett, Charlotte Br\u00f6nte and Umberto Eco have written about the beguines and their male counterparts the beghards.<\/p>\n
Architecturally, the beguinages were designed for like-minded women to live in comfort, quiet and safety, with small gardens tucked into either easily accessible alleys or around a main square with houses facing a common courtyard. The heart of the community was almost always a chapel or church.<\/p>\n
Today, UNESCO recognizes as world heritage sites 13 beguinages in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium.<\/p>\n
German tourist Biata Weissbaeker who was visiting Bruges with her husband Achim said that such spaces were and remain crucial.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen need a place like this: a safe place that gives them the possibility to go inside themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The changing traditions of the beguinages<\/p>\n
While the last beguine in Belgium, Marcella Pattijn, died in 2013 at the age of 92, the central tenet of the beguinage community has persevered over the past 800 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you are in here, you are safe \u2014 that was of course literal in the Middle Ages, once you lived here, the law couldn\u2019t take you away,\u201d she said. \u201cToday it\u2019s more like a safe place for women alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The beguinage of Bruges to this day still allows only women, although the grounds are now owned and maintained by the city itself, with residents renting from the city.<\/p>\n
The beguinages of Belgium organize public activities hoping to foster community within through gardening, and outside through open houses.<\/p>\n
A few of the Bruges residents recently planted raspberry bushes against the wall near the canal and they keep bee hives for honey. \u201cThe world is terrible for the moment, and this gives us the impression that it\u2019s still safe here,” said Beernaert. “This gives Bruges already a little bit of a small paradise, if you want. And living inside that paradise feels unbelievable.\u201d \u2014<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A visitor sits among the daffodils in the courtyard of the Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde of Bruges, Belgium, Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,8126,8127,8125,8128,8129,8116,8117,8115,6993,8133,8134,8130,8131,8132,8112],"class_list":{"0":"post-12059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-biata-weissbaeker","10":"tag-brigitte-beernaert","11":"tag-bruges-belgium-beguinages","12":"tag-charlotte-bronte","13":"tag-ken-follett","14":"tag-marcella-pattijn","15":"tag-marguerite-porete","16":"tag-michel-vanholder","17":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","18":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","19":"tag-package-100923-member-choice-lifestyles-option","20":"tag-product-30594-lifestyles-formerly-weekly-features","21":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","22":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","23":"tag-umberto-eco"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116429810873083872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}