8 Best Sights in Bruges and the Coast, Belgium

Arguably the city's finest museum lies within a palace built in the 15th century for the Van Gruuthuses, a powerful family who made their money on the exclusive right to sell gruut, an herbal mixture used for flavoring beer. Louis, the patriarch behind its rise, was a businessman, diplomat, patron, and a lover of culture. The museum tells the story of Bruges through its most powerful family and their legacy of art and relics, and through the museum's own collection of crafts—lace, amber, porcelain, jewels—that formed the backbone of the city's trade. The building interior itself is magnificent in its own right---it's a warren of narrow staircases joining rooms with grand stone fireplaces, and some with balconies offering beautiful vistas across the city. As a mark of the family's power, a private chapel in the palace has a window built directly into the adjoining Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, allowing family members to attend services there without having to mingle with the general public.

The powerful interactive displays in the In Flanders Fields Museum preserve the terrors of trench warfare and the memory of those who died in nearby fields. The museum focuses on World War I, but expands to the universal theme of war. Computer screens, sound effects, scale models, and videos realistically portray the weapons, endless battles, and numerous casualties of the area’s wars. Each visitor receives a “smart card” with details of a soldier or civilian and follows that person’s fortunes throughout the war. The museum is housed on the second floor of the magnificent Lakenhallen (Cloth Hall) on the Grote Markt, a copy of the original 1304 building. If you climb the 264 steps in the square belfry, the view of turrets, towns, and fields seems endless. There are smart cards and other information in English. The museum also maintains casualty databases, which can be used by the public.

In Zonnebeke, 7 km (4½ miles) east from Ypres (take the N37), this museum is, simply put, a must-see. It houses the largest public collection of World War I memorabilia in western Flanders. Weapons, uniforms, documents, and photographs re-create the tragedy of the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele. You can even smell the different types of poison gas that were used. The cellar holds a realistic reconstruction of a dugout, a subterranean camp that lodged soldiers during the war; it was, according to one of them, “one of the most disgusting places I ever lived in.” Outdoors there are short sections of reconstructed trenches, both Allied and German.

Preaching a message of tolerance and freedom, this small museum 5 km (3 miles) southwest from central Knokke-Heist (bus No. 3 from the railway station will drop you close by) focuses on events during the Nazi occupation of 1940--44, and commemorates the Battle of the Scheldt, and the liberation of the region by Allied forces a few months after D-Day. A series of dioramas featuring original uniforms, weapons, and vehicles will immerse you in the period.

Similar to the tablet-dominated Beer Museum around the corner, Historium Brugge uses technology (film and virtual reality) to depict the story of the city's golden age. Housed on the site of the old Waterhalle, a vast warehouse that was once at the heart of the trading hub that was medieval Bruges, the museum makes fine use of its impressive setting. However, whether you learn anything depends less on your tolerance for history and more on your ability to absorb tales of romance played out on virtual reality headsets.

In Zillebeke, 6 km (4 miles) east from Ypres, this museum is installed in an old chapel. Items on display include bombs, grenades, rifles, and uniforms. More than 6,500 British soldiers lie in the cemetery across the street.

A row of 17th-century whitewashed almshouses originally built for retired shoemakers now holds an engaging Folklore Museum. Within each house is a reconstructed historic interior: a grocery shop, a living room, a tavern, a cobbler’s workshop, a classroom, a pharmacy, and a kitchen. Another wing holds a tailor’s shop and a collection of old advertising posters. You can end your tour at the suitably historic museum café, In de Zwarte Kat (the “Black Cat”).

Sharing the magnificent Lakenhallen (Cloth Hall) building with the In Flanders Fields Museum, the Yper Museum stands in sharp contrast to its neighbor, in that it shifts the focus away from the tragic events of World War I. Instead, the exhibits tells the story of the town's development from medieval times to the 20th century, using myths, legends, archaeological finds, and more than a dash of knowing humor. The only nod to more recent history is an exhibit about Léontine Pemeke (1858–1923), a photographer who moved to Ypres in 1887 and documented its buildings and people before, during, and after the 1914–18 conflict.