Blind donkey street Bruges

This mini street connects two attractions: the Burg and the Vismarkt .

Car traffic drove through this street for decades. A piece of the wall was deliberately left unused after a restoration in the 1970s and is proof of how dirty the facade of the City Hall looked: it is a black square on the side wall of the City Hall.

Many legends explain the name of this street, but the fact is that there was an inn here in the 15th century called 'Den Blinden Ezel'.

'Blind donkey' referred to the custom of the brewers to blindfold the donkeys that had to step on the treadmill of the malt house, in order to prevent them from becoming dizzy . It wasn't the only inn to bear that name.

A legend:

After the Gentenaars had invaded Bruges on the third of May in 1382, they sat on the Burg the next day drinking and celebrating their victory. Their eyes fell on the beautiful golden dragon that adorned the tower of St. Donaas Cathedral. They wanted to take that dragon to Ghent as spoils of war . The “Strops” loaded the dragon onto a wagon and drove him to the street next to the town hall. The street had no name then. “ To Ghent with it! ” they shouted in unison, “ we put this dragon on our belfry! ”

The donkeys that were harnessed to the chariot also heard this . They were Bruges donkeys. So stubborn. No matter what the feeders swore and moaned, the donkeys refused to move a single leg. It was as if they didn't want their dragon to be carried away from their city. The carriage with the dragon remained motionless.

The Gentenaars did not know what to do. They had already tried with a carrot in front of the donkeys ' nose and with pepper under their tail . Nothing helped. Until one of the Nooses came up with a barbaric idea: “Burn out their eyes!” he shouted. And really! An iron rod was glowed and the unfortunate animals burned out the eyes. “ Come on! To Ghent !”, cursed. the donkey driver. The poor beasts no longer knew where they were walking . They no longer saw thistle before their eyes. To the Market Square or to the Gentpoort, they were all alike. And so the Gentenaars carried away the beautiful dragon from Bruges and since then she has been showing off on the Ghent belfry.

The street where all this happened was later given the name of Blinde Ezelstraat in honor of those two good animals. Later there was another inn in this street, which was baptized "In de Blinden Ezel".

The gilded dragon also turns out not to be a fabrication . In the past, towers and belfries were often crowned with a statue of Saint Michael slaying the dragon . He then had to act as the guardian angel of the city. In Brussels, there is still a statue of Saint Michael on the town hall. Sometimes the statue of Saint Michael is limited to the dragon alone, as is the case in Ghent.

Willem Vandenameele