In Bruges’ Gruuthuse Museum, a new exhibition on the city and on one of its most important – if little-known – architects, Louis Delacenserie, throws a spotlight on how Bruges used the Gothic Revival to reshape its image.
 
Bruges realised that the rise of cultural tourism could help the city out of an economic slump and, around 1870, launched what in today’s language would be termed a “re-branding exercise”. The “white city”, with its Neo-classical style of straight mouldings and white plaster covering the old brick facades, gave way to a new style that restored the city’s medieval character.
 
“It is during this period that the myth was created of Bruges as an authentic mediaeval city, with its history set in stone,” says Yves Roose, the city’s alderman for culture and education.
 
The choice of neo-Gothic chimed with the times as there was a general fascination in Europe with “the glorious past”; for Bruges, this meant the Middle Ages when the town was an important trading centre. Parades and commemorations were held in the city, reflecting a yearning for times gone by and creating what the museum calls “an ideal breeding ground” for the historicising architectural style.
 
Advocates of the neo-Gothic style included James Weale, a figurehead in the city’s English colony; Bruges resident Adolf Duclos; and architect and archaeologist Karel Verschelde. Documents of all three men are on show, including detailed drawings of Bruges’ facades by Verschelde, the first person to distinguish three types of facades in the city and catalogue their most important features.
 
It is Delacenserie, however, who takes centre stage, as the exhibition’s title, The Invention of Bruges: City of Delacenserie makes clear. The show also marks the 100th anniversary of his death. bOb Van Reeth, former master architect of the Flemish Community, admits in an interview screening at the show that he hadn’t actually heard of Delacenserie. “A complete gap in my knowledge,” he says. “But whoever walks around Bruges comes across him.” In other words, you may well not have heard of his name, but you will most probably be familiar with his buildings.
 
One of Delacenserie’s major works in Bruges is the Provincial Palace on the central market square, the Markt. This commission arose after a fire broke out on 20 February 1878. Rumour has it that the people of Bruges didn’t exactly overexert themselves to rescue the unpopular, Neo-classical building from burning to the ground. Once gone, the way was open for a “more suitable” style.
 
Delacenserie worked on the designs along with provincial architect René Buyck; the new building had to include a post office and telegram office, the national archive and the Administration for Public Roads and Bridges. (In the 1960s, the city briefly considered demolishing the Provincial Palace but ultimately decided against it.)
 
Another important Delacenserie building is the venue for the exhibition itself – the Gruuthuse Palace. The restoration of the building, named after the family that made its fortune selling gruut (an herbal mixture used prior to hops in brewing beer), was the biggest and longest project in the architect’s career. His designs for the facades and the interior, such as his coloured plans for the flooring, are also on display.
 
The museum has put together a booklet in Dutch, available at the entrance, with a walk through Bruges highlighting some of Delacenserie’s most significant buildings, such as the private home “De Rode Steen” on Jan van Eyckplein, which was restored based on the architect’s designs. The house was the first to make use of “artful restoration” subsidies, which were available to individuals as long as certain style rules were applied.
 
Not all of Delacenserie’s buildings are in Bruges. One of the best known is perhaps Antwerp Central Station; the original design plan of 1897 is on display in the room dedicated to the architect. Here you can also find pictures of many of Delacenserie’s works, each marked as to whether it was a new build, restoration, artful restoration or interior design.
 
The exhibition is divided into four rooms, concentrating on the historical context around 1870, Delacenserie himself, the Gruuthuse and the Provincial Palace and, finally, architecture in Bruges from Delacenserie’s death through to the present day.
 
And if after all that you want some further reading, you could always pick up Georges Rodenbach’s 1897 novel Le Carillonneur about the restoration of Bruges at the end of the 19th century, especially as its protagonist is considered by many to have been inspired by Delacenserie himself.
 
The Invention of Bruges: City of Delacenserie.
Until 25 April

Bruggemuseum-Gruuthuse, Dijver 17, Bruges

www.uitvindingvanbrugge.be
 

I left my heart in Neo-classical
 
Delacenserie’s success was mainly due to his work restoring mediaeval Bruges, both through his restoration of authentic mediaeval buildings and new-build projects in the neo- Gothic style. Yet, there are signs he may have preferred Neo-classical architecture.
 
In his will, which is on display in the exhibition, Delacenserie left 6,000 Belgian francs to enable the town council to launch an architecture competition focussing on the classical style – an interesting specification for the man so closely associated with Gothic buildings.
 
Then again, he did have Neo-classical training at the Bruges Academy of Fine Arts and, soon after graduating as an architect, Delacenserie won the Grand Prix de Rome, an architectural prize that allowed him to travel to Greece and Italy to study classical architecture. His first work experience was as an assistant to the Ghent architect Louis Roelandt, a key figure in the Belgian Neo-classical movement.
 
Back in his native Bruges, where he became town architect in 1870, some of the first buildings Delacenserie designed were for a Neo-classical district being built around the new theatre.
 
“We will never know for sure which architectural style Delacenserie preferred,” admits assistant curator Katelijne Vertongen. “On the one hand, the quality of his work and his attention to detail suggest the architect genuinely liked the fashionable neo-Gothic style, and yet his training and the bequest in his will can’t be ignored either.”