A large cobbled square framed by stepped gabled guild houses and a tall belfry tower, with horse drawn carriages waiting at the curb.
What Markt looks like
The Markt is a large open square, closed to most vehicle traffic and paved edge to edge in cobblestone. Stepped and crow gabled guild houses in red, cream and ochre brick run along three of its sides. Most stand three to five storeys, with cafe tables and canvas awnings under the ground floor windows.
The Belfry rises 83 metres on the square's south side. Its lower stone shaft gives way to an octagonal upper stage built in the 1480s, finished in battlements rather than the spire lost to fire in 1741. A narrow stair of 366 steps climbs inside the tower.
The takes up most of the east side, a pale stone front of pointed arches and pinnacles rebuilt in 1887. The Historium stands at the square's north corner, a stepped gable building that holds the city's tourist office. A bronze stands on a tall pedestal at the centre, facing the Belfry.
Thirteen horse drawn carriages wait along the kerb on the square's west side, available for hire by the half hour. , on the northwest corner, keeps its own outdoor tables under black umbrellas. Short rows of parked bicycles stand between the lamp posts nearby.
Shot in Markt
In Bruges used the open square beneath the Belfry as a key location. Ray waits on the cobblestones while Ken climbs the tower, and the confrontation between Ken and Harry at the top was filmed on a closed set rather than inside the real belfry.
In Bruges, 2008
Ray waits here while Ken climbs the Belfry's 366 steps, and the production filmed the ground level and the stairwell inside the real tower. The confrontation between Ken and Harry at the top of the tower was built on a closed set rather than shot inside the belfry itself. Street View
What Markt can double for
Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium
Brussels' Grand Place is lined with the same dense run of stepped and scrolled gabled guild houses in dark brick and gilded stone, built around one open paved square at a similar scale to the Markt. A production that needs the look without Bruges's narrower approach streets for trucks could stage it here instead. The Grand Place's guild houses are taller and far more ornamented with gilding than the plainer brick fronts in Bruges. Its own Town Hall has a slender openwork spire over 96 metres tall, nothing like the Belfry's flat octagonal top, so a shot that includes the skyline gives it away. Try searching stepped gabled guild houses now.
Dlugi Targ in Gdansk, Poland
Gdansk's Dlugi Targ is lined with narrow gabled townhouses in red brick, their ornamented fronts close kin to the stepped gables on the Markt. The street runs longer and straighter than the open square in Bruges, reading more like an avenue than a plaza. Most of Dlugi Targ's facades are postwar reconstructions rather than original fabric, which can look crisper and less weathered on camera than Bruges's own brick. The Main Town Hall's own tower stands where Dlugi Targ meets Ulica Dluga, close to the Belfry's own height. Keep it out of any skyline shot standing in for Bruges. Try searching narrow gabled townhouses now.
Rynek Glowny in Krakow, Poland
Krakow's Rynek Glowny is a similarly large paved square ringed by tall gabled and arcaded townhouses, with St Mary's Basilica's twin towers standing in for a single dominant landmark the way the Belfry does in Bruges. The square itself is far larger and flatter, without the same tight cluster of stepped gables. The Cloth Hall running down the centre of Rynek Glowny has no equivalent on the Markt and would need to stay out of any wide shot, and Krakow's pavement is smoother modern stone rather than cobblestone. Try searching large square with towers now.
