Minnewater Park

These lawns could have become a street of private villas. Minnewater Park took its name from the neighboring Minnewater, but the park itself is much younger than the surrounding development: it opened only in nineteen seventy-nine.

The neo-Gothic Fraeyhuis once stood here, with a large enclosed garden. In nineteen sixty-nine, the house was demolished, while its gatekeeper's lodge was preserved. The land was designated for open residential development. Real-estate brokers expected to divide the former estate into plots and create an expensive villa district.

The main opponent of this plan was Bruges mayor Michel Van Maele. He pressed for the land to be bought for a garden open to everyone. For Van Maele, this was a practical choice: he started out in the bakery business, then invested in real estate and was himself involved in converting agricultural land into building plots. He understood well how much money such subdivision brought in, and here he proposed giving it up.

The city council supported the mayor. A substantial subsidy from the parks department enabled Bruges to buy one and a half hectares of land on August ninth, nineteen seventy-four. Van Maele managed to bring the plot into city ownership, but the park did not open during his term: in nineteen seventy-seven, he left office, and work began that same year. Two years later, everyone was already allowed in.

The designers preserved the basis of the private garden: some paths and rows of clipped lindens. At the same time, they laid a pedestrian route through the park to the historic center. That is why some people stay here on the grass, while others cross the park on their way from the bus parking area to old Bruges—both roles were built into the very first design.

Fraeyhuis itself is no longer here. Its former gatekeeper's lodge stands at the edge of the park, and the lindens still mark the lines of the garden that was almost divided among villa owners.