I often write thrillers about religious relics, so when I need a research trip, I look for cities with saints in their churches and blood in their history. Bruges has both, and a relic of the True Cross and a phial of Holy Blood besides.
I visited in early July 2026, the middle day of a long weekend based in Brussels, with the Eurostar from London to Brussels taking under two hours and the train on to Bruges about an hour more.
Bruges’ entire medieval centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, compact enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, and every street seems to end in step gables and hanging baskets. Walk with me through the city in the photos below.
We started at St Saviour’s Cathedral, the city’s oldest parish church, by tradition founded by St Eligius around 646 and elevated to cathedral status in 1834 after French revolutionaries demolished the old cathedral of St Donatian.
St Saviour’s Cathedral
The choir is hung with a series of tapestries on the life of Christ, woven in Brussels around 1730 for St Donatian’s and moved here after the French occupation.
[Read more…] about Bruges, Belgium: Relics, Canals, and the Basilica of the Holy Blood