A Market, A Beguinage, Adornes Domain and a Pottery Museum

It's street market day in the Market Square in city center of Bruges.  As usual, we hustled down to see what they had to offer.  Everything was of outstanding quality and very abundant.  We looked at all the fruits, vegetables, cheeses, foie gras and Belgium waffles.

It was spectacular, but we passed on this one due to other obligations.  We had a lot of fun looking though.

Next, we headed for the Begijnhof.

It was built to house women of the lay order, called Beguines.  Today it houses a group of Benedictine Nuns.  We strolled through the peaceful gardens and were inspired by the tranquility of the area.

Our landlady, Louise, is a guide at the Jerusalem Chapel.  It is the only freestanding 15th-century stone monument preserved in Bruges that has never been moved.

The chapel was commissioned by the Adornes, a prominent Bruges merchant family originating from the Italian city of Genoa.  It was consecrated in 1429.  In 1470 Anselm Adornes and one of his sons (one of sixteen children) set off from Padua, Italy on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  On his return to Bruges, Anselm finished the Chapel as an exact copy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  Inside the chapel, we see beautiful stained glass windows, a very unusual alter and the magnicent high alter.

The architecture, interior and the relics reflect the Adornes family's great reverence for Jerusalem.

Also inside, we see the memorial sites of  Anselm Adornes and his wife, Margaretha.  He was murdered in Scotland and only his heart is resting in the Jerusalem Chapel.  The rest of his remains lie in Linlithgow, Scotland.

Later in the afternoon, we are off to see the Museum Torhout Aardewerk in the center of Torhout, about fifteen miles southwest of Bruges.

Unique pottery creations from the 16th to the 20th century are beautifully displayed in a unique small castle.