Saint Elizabeth's Church

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary stands in a niche in the west façade. After her husband's death, she established a hospital and personally cared for the sick and for lepers; the beguines chose her as their patron saint precisely because of this care for people. In their community's parish church, they gathered for services and for the same everyday help to which the figure above the entrance is devoted.

On January ninth, fifteen eighty-four, it was not parishioners who stayed overnight in this church. Bruges had already been under Calvinist rule for six years. The beguines were forced to leave the Wijngaard, and their parish church was turned into a warehouse and a dormitory for people fleeing to the city. Among them were weavers from Bailleul and Hondschoote, who made their living by their trade and had left home because of the war. Grain, fruit, hay, and straw were piled up inside.

During the night, one of the refugees failed to keep proper watch over a candle. This is how a contemporary described the incident: the fire spread to the supplies, and the church burned out almost completely. The fire was later sometimes linked to religious conflict, but there was no arson. Of the medieval building, almost nothing survived except the east wall.

When the beguines returned, they had to raise money to restore their parish church. The work was directed by Barbara van Bassevelde, the grand mistress—that is, the head and administrator of the community. By the time of the fire, she had lived in the Wijngaard for about ten years; in sixteen twenty-four, the fiftieth anniversary of her joining the community was marked here. For Barbara, the house in which she was meant to spend her whole life had burned down.

First, the beguines made the church ready enough to resume services as early as fifteen eighty-seven. Then the master masons Pieter Joos and his namesake son built a new west façade and restored the roof. The date still stands above the door: sixteen oh five. The work was fully completed by sixteen oh nine.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, was placed in a niche in this façade. The church is named in her honor. The daughter of a Hungarian king and the widow of a Thuringian ruler, she supported a hospital after her husband's death and personally cared for the sick and for lepers. That is why the beguines, who combined religious life with caring for people, chose her as the patron saint of many of their communities.

Barbara van Bassevelde died in sixteen twenty-seven and was buried inside the church she had restored. Her grave slab records this very deed: she raised the church after an accidental fire. Above the west entrance remains Elizabeth, who gave the church its name; beneath the stone slabs lies the woman who returned it to the beguines.