Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/360

 354 BRUGES BRUGGER Belfry of Bruges. the h&tel de ville, containing a public library, the hall of justice, and the prinsenhof, the an- cient palace of the counts of Flanders. Bruges has a flourishing free academy of fine arts, a bo- tanical garden, museum, theatre, an agricultural society, an exchange, a commercial and other tribunals, a gymnasium, and a remarkably large number of charitable institutions. The corpora- tion of weavers of Bruges was celebrated in the Interior of Town Halt time of Charlemagne. From the 9th century till the middle of the 14th the town was under the sway of the counts of Flanders, and reached the height of its prosperity in the 15th cen- tury, after having passed under the domin- ion of the dukes of Burgundy. Factories were established here by merchants from 17 states, and 20 foreign ministers were accredited to its magistrates. In 1430 Philip the Good instituted the order of the golden fleece in honor of the prosperity of the woollen trade of the town. Bruges was then one of the great commercial emporiums of the world, the central mart of the Hanseatic league, and the chief resort for Eng- lish, Lombard, and Venetian merchants. It had a large share of the commerce of the globe, while its manufactures, especially in tapestry, excelled all others. Hans Memling and the brothers Van Eyck practised their art there. This great prosperity, however, engendered ex- travagant habits in dress and social life to such an extent that Charles V. was obliged to pass stringent sumptuary laws. The dominion of the house of Hapsburg proved fatal to the prosperity of the town. The citizens, who had always been noted for the jealous care with which they guarded their privileges, impris- oned their first sovereign of that house, the archduke Maximilian, for violating them ; and to punish the town the trade was transferred to Antwerp, and its ruin was consummated by the persecutions of the duke of Alva in the latter part of the 16th century, when many of the inhabitants fled to England. The town was on two occasions the asylum of English kings : once when Edward IV. fled from Eng- land, and again during the exile of Charles II., the latter inhabiting a house which still stands on the south side of the great square, at the corner of the rue St. Amand, bearing the sign, Au lion beige. liUI <.KS, Roger Tan, a Flemish painter, pupil of John van Eyck, flourished about the middle of the 15th century. He was probably the same person as Magister Rogel of Flanders, who painted a " chapel " or altarpiece in three com- partments, which was presented by John II. of Castile to the Carthusian church at Miraflores in 1445, and which Charles V. used to carry with him in all his expeditions. He was one of the few artists of his tune who painted on canvas. BRl'GG, or Brack, a village of Switzerland, capital of a district of the same name in the can- ton of Aargau, on the Aar, 10 m. N". E. of Aarau ; pop. in 1870, 1,338. It is surrounded I by walls, defended by conical towers, and is I built on a portion of the site of the ancient ! Vindonissa, some remains of which are still to ! be seen. About 2 m. from the village are the ruins of the ancient castle of the counts of Hapsburg. The ruined abbey of Konigsfelden in the same neighborhood was founded in 1310 by the widow and daughter of Albert, emperor of Germany, who was assassinated on the spot. During the reformation Brugg was called the Prophetenstadtchen, or the little town of proph- ets, from the many theologians born there. BKUGGER, Friedrieli, a German sculptor, born in Munich, Jan. 13, 1815, died there, April 9, 1870. He studied at the academy of Munich,