VAN BRUGGE NAAR DAMME

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The canal from Brugge to Damme was dug by Napoleon, or rather by his Spanish prisoners, in 1810, along the course of the river Reie. The aim was to link up eventually with the river Scheldt and its estuary to the sea. Work was interrupted by the fall of Napoleon and the section from Hoek onward was only completed later.

The tower of Damme's Notre Dame church comes into sight. The church was claimed to have been built in 1180 when the town got its independent status. But in the absence of relevant documention, archeological evidence dates it from around 1225.

The church itself has undergone many drastic renovations but the tower remains part of the original structure. However in 1725 the steeple was removed as it was liable to collapse and the four turrets surrounding it disappeared at the same time. So we are now left with the squared off tower.

Approaching Le Moulin Blanc on the ramparts of Damme. In 1837 it replaced an older wooden mill which had been there for centuries and which originally belonged to the Counts of Flanders. In 1267 the Count's family had made it over to the town on condition they were paid the equivalent of half the value of what it produced - presumably in perpetuity.

I love the entry at the back of my guide book from 1967/8 under the heading "What the tourist can visit":

Moulin: peut être visiter moyennant pourboire.

So as long as it remains standing and the tourists keep coming, there will be an income stream of sorts. I wonder will the Count's descendants, if such there be, insist on their cut?

An afternoon view of part of Damme's town hall. The original town hall was built in 1241 but was completely demolished in 1464 and replaced by the current building.

The smaller statues between the windows are of the Counts of Flanders who seem to pop up all over the place. The larger statue in the middle is not part of the church. It is the statue of Jacob van Maerlant, a major Flemish poet, in the main square.

Tijl Uilenspiegel (German: Till Ulenspiegel) emerged as a character in literature at the beginning of the sixteenth century, though he was reputed to have been around in German folklore much further back. In the first published book of stories he plays practical jokes on his contemporaries, especially scatological in nature, exposing vices at every turn. So much so that a version of his adventures published in Gent in the seventeenth century was bowdlerised of all satirical references to the clergy. [Brian Merriman stop turning.]

At the beginning when Uilenspiegel was still German and before the Flemish appropriated him as a symbol of their resistance to Spanish rule, some people held that his name was a low German pun on "wipe arse" (ulen = to wipe, spiegel = mirror/reverse/behind). Given the stories of his life this would be most fitting.

Anyway he was originally born and buried in Germany, but now for some local Flemish enthusiasts he was born and buried in Damme and there is no record of the Tourist Board objecting to this interpretation.

No disrespect to the dead, but what appears normal to a Flemish speaker may well conjure up interesting and even disturbing speculation for an English speaker.


There is a useful short history of Damme on the Visit Damme website.