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Best Places to Visit guide

Top 9 locations in Vlaanderen

Asaf Lev-Ari

Live update: Updated May 11, 2022

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1. Flemish Béguinages

Nonnenstraat 13, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium

PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

Asaf Lev-Ari

The Béguines were women who dedicated their lives to God without retiring from the world. In the 13th century they founded the béguinages , enclosed communities designed to meet their spiritual and material needs. The Flemish béguinages are architectural ensembles composed of houses, churches, ancillary buildings and green spaces, with a layout of either urban or rural origin and built in styles specific to the Flemish cultural region. They are a fascinating reminder of the tradition of the Béguines that developed in north-western Europe in the Middle Ages.

ALSO FEATURED IN:Top 19 locations in Belgium

2. Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex

Vrijdagmarkt 22, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium

PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

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The Plantin-Moretus Museum is a printing plant and publishing house dating from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Situated in Antwerp, one of the three leading cities of early European printing along with Paris and Venice, it is associated with the history of the invention and spread of typography. Its name refers to the greatest printer-publisher of the second half of the 16th century: Christophe Plantin (c. 1520–89). The monument is of outstanding architectural value. It contains exhaustive evidence of the life and work of what was the most prolific printing and publishing house in Europe in the late 16th century. The building of the company, which remained in activity until 1867, contains a large collection of old printing equipment, an extensive library, invaluable archives and works of art, among them a painting by Rubens.

ALSO FEATURED IN:Top 19 locations in Belgium

3. Historic Centre of Brugge

Markt 3, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

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Asaf Lev-Ari

Brugge is an outstanding example of a medieval historic settlement, which has maintained its historic fabric as this has evolved over the centuries, and where original Gothic constructions form part of the town's identity. As one of the commercial and cultural capitals of Europe, Brugge developed cultural links to different parts of the world. It is closely associated with the school of Flemish Primitive painting.

ALSO FEATURED IN:Top 19 locations in Belgium