The Markt is Bruges’ main square and marketplace. A market has been held on this site since the tenth century. It is an impressive open space lined with seventeenth century houses and overlooked by the Belfort on one side. The oldest façade on the square belongs to the Huis Bouchotte, which was the home of Charles II of England during part of his exile from 1656-1657.

in the middele is a sttue of Pieter de Coninck and Jan Breidel, two fourteenth century guildsmen who led a rebellion against the French in 1302. known as the Bruges Matin, they led Flemish soldiers to attack the French at dawn on May 18, 1302, killing almost all of them. This bloody uprising paved the way for a form of independence for the Low Countrie; major towns.

Rights such as the freedom to trade were subsequently enshrined in the towns’ charters until the fifteenth century.