Bruges Diamond Museum

The diamond museum is located on the Ankerplein in Bruges.

The diamond museum was opened on June 19, 1999. The museum has been expanded in several phases since then. In 2005, the Brazilian collection and exhibitions on synthetic and industrial diamonds were opened.

Research in the city archives of Bruges confirmed that diamonds were traded and polished in Bruges long before Antwerp and Amsterdam. Bruges was the diamond center of Europe. Lodewijk van Berken, a Bruges native , succeeded in cutting the facets on a diamond very precisely and symmetrically , leading to around 1476 being the first to invent the pear-shaped "pear-cut" ("pendeloque-" or "briolette-") diamond, which the brilliance of the diamonds. Only after the decline of Bruges as an international trading city did trade shift to Antwerp.

At the beginning of the twentieth century , the Antwerp diamond industry returned to Bruges in search of cheaper labor . Between 1909 and 1970, diamonds were processed in 13 workshops in the city and on the outskirts: from a real diamond factory where dozens of young people learned the cutting techniques through the successful cooperative "the dawn" to small workshops somewhere in a secret annex. From Bruges, the diamond industry spread to Ypres and Diksmuide . The decline was due to the sector's shift to the Kempen and especially abroad , where wage costs were lower.

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