Bruges has a long tradition of international port activity. The oldest trade settlement of Bruges and the early medieval port were accessible from the sea until around 1050. A storm flood in 1134 reshaped the Flemish coastal plain: a deep channel appeared, the Zwin, which at the time reached as far as present day Damme. The city remained linked to the sea until the fifteenth century via a canal from the Zwin to Bruges. But Bruges had to use a number of outports, such as Damme and Sluys. It remains so connected, but its main seaport nowadays is, as its name implies, Zeebrugge.

By the eleventh century, Bruges had expanded to become a commercial centre for Europe. With the reawakening of town life in the twelfth century, a wool market, a woollens weaving industry, and the market for cloth all profited from the shelter of city walls, where surpluses could be safely accumulated under the patronage of the counts of Flanders. Bruges was already included in the sequential circuit of the Flemish cloth fairs at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The city's entrepreneurs reached out to make economic colonies of England and Scotland's wool-producing districts. English contacts brought Normandy grain and Gascon wines. Hanseatic ships filled the harbor, which had to be expanded beyond Damme to Sluys to accommodate the new cog-ships, which were round like half walnut shells. In 1277, the first merchant fleet from Genoa appeared in the port of Bruges, first of the merchant colony that made Bruges the main link to the trade of the Mediterranean. This development opened not only the trade in spices from the Levant, but also advanced commercial and financial techniques and a flood of capital that soon took over the banking of Bruges. The Bourse opened in 1309 and developed into the most sophisticated money market of the Low Countries in the fourteenth century. By the time Venetian galleys first appeared, in 1314, they were latecomers. (Braudel 1984)

The population swelled, from some 35,000 inhabitants in 1340 to perhaps 50,000 before 1500, when the natural link between Bruges and the sea silted up, and the port of Antwerp became a rival.

Not every citizen of Bruges floated on the rising economic tide: the differences in income between the tradesmen and the patricians were great. Violent revolts, like those of 1280 and 1436-1438 were roughly suppressed. In the 1302 uprising, the ordinary people took the side of the Count of Flanders against the king of France and the propertied classes. First the French garrison was murdered, in May 1302, and two months later, Bruges took part in the Flemish victory in the Battle of the Golden Spurs on July 11, 1302. The statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck can still be seen on the central market.

After a decline during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Bruges recovered to an extent during the sixteenth century. However, the city had lost its leading trade position to Antwerp. The split from the Netherlands in 1584 led to the final decline of Bruges. By 1600, Bruges was a provincial city with a modest maritime reputation.

During the seventeenth century various efforts to bring back the glorious past were taken. The maritime infrastructure was modernized, and new connections with the sea were built, but without much success. Bruges gradually disappeared from the picture and George Rodenbach even named it 'Bruges-la-Morte', meaning 'Bruges-the-dead'. Only in the second half of the twentieth century has the city started to reclaim some of its past glory. International tourism has boomed and new efforts have resulted in Bruges being designated 'cultural capital of Europe' in 2002.

Like Ghent, but on a more concentrated scale, it has most of its medieval architecture intact. There are many beautiful medieval buildings, including the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady), whose brick spire - at 122m - is Europe's highest brick tower/building.

Bruges is also famous for its 13th-century Belfort, housing a municipal Carillion comprising 47 bells. The city still employs a full-time bell ringer, who puts on regular free concerts.

Other famous buildings in Bruges include the Beguinage, the Heilig Bloed Basiliek (the Basilica of the Holy Blood), the modern Concert Hall and the St-John Hospital.

Bruges also has a very fine collection of medieval and early modern art, including the world-famous collection of Flemish Primitives. Various masters, such as Hans Memling and Jan van Eyck, lived and worked in Bruges.