#Béguinage

[philoursmars]

Nouveau retour à mon projet de présenter la plupart de mes 55500 photos (et des brouettes).  Plus trop loin du présent….  

2017, une journée à Bruges avec ma sœur et son mari. Ici la traditionnelle et immanquable balade sur les canaux (sur l’avant-dernière, l’entrée du béguinage)

[jacks-european-adventure]

The Béguinage has a unique history among religious institutions during the same period. The Béguinage is a Christian community named after the Beguines, women who served the church and devoted themselves to God but didn't take any formal vows like nuns do. The women went out into the community and did many jobs, such as teaching, cooking, and sowing, but always returned to the Béguinage to stay together. I chose The Béguinage because it displays some of the good work the Catholic church did in Europe, despite its marred reputation. They offered a safe place for women of all classes to stay, work, and devote themselves to God, sheltered from the circumstances of the outside world. They stood strong even during the Reformation movement and the chaos that ensued. I found it interesting that there are 13 Béguinage's in Belgium alone, displaying, once again, the Catholic church's influence on the region.

[unjouruntableau]

Ferdinand Willaert, Entrée du béguinage à Gand (l'hiver), 1896.

[random-brushstrokes]

Ferdinand Willaert (Belgian, 1861–1938) - Le grand Béguinage à Gand, l'hiver

[artifacts-archive]

Crib of the Infant Jesus

South Netherlandish, 15th century

Miniature cradles for the Christ Child were popular devotional objects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and were venerated, especially in convents, where they were often presented to women taking their vows. This splendid cradle comes from the Grand Béguinage of Louvain, Belgium, established for lay women in the twelfth century. It is decorated with carved representations of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi on either end. The biblical family tree of Christ is illustrated on the embroidered coverlet.

[raisongardee]

"Une autre colonisation de la France est en marche depuis environ 20 ans: c'est le rachat par des étrangers des beaux bâtiments français laissés à l'abandon par les propriétaires du sol que les impôts ont ruiné. Cela se vérifie partout. Ces colons-là rachètent nos biens non pour les farcir de leur culture à eux, mais pour les refranciser le plus possible par rénovation en l'état originel. Exemple de la Dordogne anglaise : les Britanniques ne transforment les maisons qu'ils achètent ni en Yorkshire Cottage, ni en style Stuart ni en Georgian. Ces étrangers s'attachent à retrouver le plus exact style périgourdin. Observons encore l'œuvre des réseaux néerlandais sur la France, investisseurs spécialisés dans l'achat locatif touristique, demeures anciennes converties en chambres d'hôte, etc. Enfin les réseaux allemands et scandinaves sont eux très branchés sur les bâtiments traditionnels collectifs : phalanstères, béguinages, pensionnats, monastères. Non seulement ces hommes rénovent de fond en comble et à leurs frais le bâti traditionnel français, mais en plus ils retournent le terrain alentour pour le semer, le tamiser, le passer au rouleau, et un an plus tard voici qu'a poussé sur les lieux d'un terrain vague encerclant de ronces une ruine sordide, de ravissants jardins à la française autour d'une maison blanche comme la neige au soleil."

Lounès Darbois, 2022.

[manukodeck]

Au Grand Béguinage de Leuven Atelier dessin avec le groupe Bic en poche

[booksellergothic]

Halloween Day 16

(painting by Galen Dara)

Now is time for dark and cosmic things.  For hideous creatures of space and beyond any reality.  For Lovecraftian horrors but written by and about one of those unpleasant ... females he so disliked.

I don’t normally trigger warn, but this is Cosmic horror that also explores some elements of Lovecraft’s own, personal bigotries.  There is gore and sexual themes, as well as body horror and other, more esoteric fears.  Reader, proceed with caution.

Let me know if you want to be added to my taglist,

@piggledy-higgledy​ @imdeadtiredtm​ @joyfullymassivewhispers​ @caffiend-queen​ @dangertoozmanykids101​ @toozmanykids​ @myoxisbroken​ @wrathkitty​ @punemy-spotted​ @stupendouslovegardener​ @sylviefromneptune​ 

[lilstjarna]

Récapitulatif 2023

Alors que 2024 est déjà bien avancé, je voulais reprendre le fil des voyages effectués en 2023. Ce récapitulatif des destinations visitées et un bon moyen de revenir sur les émotions vécues et d'analyser les choix faits afin de se projeter pour un nouveau cycle de voyages.

janvier

Aix-la-Chapelle, Allemagne

Une destination choisie pour son caractère ancien, avec ses petites rues médiévales et ses belles demeures. Par chance, il neigeait ces jours là ce qui a rendu le séjour féérique. C'est une petite ville pleine de charme qui nous a donné envie d'y retourner en été pour la voir sous un autre jour.

février

Rome, Italie

Un grand classique pour un grand week-end de st valentin. Les températures étaient fraiches mais le ciel dégagé ce qui nous a permis de privilégier les ballades en extérieur. Nous y étions tous les deux déjà allé, en complément des lieux emblématiques nous avons donc aussi axé notre visite vers des quartiers moins connus, de belles découvertes en ont résulté.

Birmingham, Angleterre

D'abord perplexe par les allures hybrides de cette ville qui mélange bâtiments anciens et style industriel, j'ai fini par me laisser conquérir grâce aux charmes de ses longues promenades le long des canaux. Idéale pour un week-end ou une étape, Birmingham est vivante et pleine de surprises.

mars

Meaux, France

Une escapade à la journée dans cette belle ville à la cathédrale magistrale et aux mignonnes ruelles. On promène le long de la Marne puis on se dirige vers le musée de la grande guerre. Remonter le fil d'un conflit terrible à travers les salles aux visuels et objets saisissants. Une épopée émouvante.

avril

Glasgow, Edimbourg, Ecosse

Petit périple en Ecosse afin de rallier Glasgow à Edimbourg. Si la première est moins touriste et davantage moderne, elle a su garder des quartiers authentiques et un magnifique jardin botanique qui méritent le détour. pour la seconde, à peine besoin de la présenter, du castle au arthur's seat à victoria street, on se perd dans les rues pavées avec un plaisir sans fin.

Amsterdam, Pays-Bas

Charmante plus que jamais au printemps avec ses vélos en fleurs et ses tulipes colorées, Amsterdam est une destination dont on ne se lasse pas. Il y a toujours un nouveau recoin à découvrir, un nouveau café à fréquenter, une nouvelle exposition à visiter.

Louvain, Belgique

Située à proximité de Bruxelles, Louvain est une visite d'un jour à ne pas manquer. Avec son centre ville ancien aux jolis bâtiments, son immense béguinage parfaitement préservé et ses nombreuses boutiques pleines de trésor, c'est une escapade qui saura vous ravir.

mai

Zurich, Suisse

Court séjour sous la pluie qui n'aura pas pu mettre en lmumière, j'en suis certaine, tous les avantages de Zurich. Au bord de lac, avec ses jolis maisons colorées et ses promenades au bord de l'eau, cette ville suisse est étonnamment dynamique mais reposante. De nombreux musées permettent d'ailleurs d'y mieux comprendre l'histoire et la culture suisse. Une seule solution : y retourner.

juin

Giverny, France

Un village emblématique de la ceinture francilienne est la maison de Monet et son célèbre jardin de nymphéas. Une sortie que nous n'avions encore pu faire, c'est désormais corrigé. Et le lieu est à la hauteur de nos attente, au-delà de la charmante demeure et ses environs fleuris, c'est un village charmant à découvrir et le merveilleux musée de l'impressionnisme. A découvrir donc de toute urgence.

Lyon, France

Une nouvelle année, un nouveau séjour à Lyon. C'est presque ainsi que l'on pourrait résumer notre décision de nous rendre à nouveau dans la capitale gastronomique française. difficile de résister aux charmes des traboules, des bouchons et de la confluence. Nous y retournons donc annuellement avec enthousiasme et ne sommes jamais déçus de notre décision.

juillet

Birmingham, Oxford, Bristol, Angleterre

Après un premier aperçu de Birmingham, nous y voici de retour comme point de départ d'une grande odyssée estivale anglaise. Après une visite de Warwick et de son château qui nous donne envie de nous y attarder, coup de cœur absolu pour Oxford. La cité universitaire déploie tous ses charmes pour nous séduire et le réussit merveilleusement bien. Oxford est impossible à oublier et ancrée dans nos cœurs pour longtemps. A Bristol c'est une ville aux différentes facettes qui nous attend, des maisons traditionnelles colorées au quartier du street-art, c'est une chasse aux trésors.

août

Morbihan, France

Petit tour des villages balnéaires et intérieurs du Morbihan afin de profiter des rayons de soleil sur les maisons anciennes et les prés aux vaches. De Erquy à Paimpont, on enchaine les visites de châteaux médiévaux, les dégustations de spécialités locales et les promenades au bord des falaises, tous les plaisirs de la Bretagne.

Nancy, France

Idéale pour un week-end, Nancy offre des promenades urbaines et rurales. De la place stanislas aux bords de la moselle, on se plait à déambuler dans les ruelles, à découvrir une église gothique ou une maison art nouveau. Plusieurs parcours organisés par l'office de tourisme sont d'ailleurs à découvrir en autodidacte, une belle initiative.

septembre

Metz, France

Metz est une ville charmante avec son centre ancien, ses belles demeures et ses ponts fleuris. Riche de ses nombreux musées et activités, c'est une cité vivante qui allie parfaitement urbanisme et nature. Une destination idéale pour tous car chacun saura y trouver une caractéristique qui lui plait.

Mannheim, Heidelberg, Allemagne

Si Mannheim représente parfaitement l'idée d'une Allemagne après-guerre reconstruit rapidement au béton, malgré son château inspiré de versailles qui dénote dans le paysage, Heidelberg en est le parfait opposé. Cette petite ville de montagne a pu conserver un centre historique important qui en fait tout son charme. Maisons pastels, ruines romantiques, promenades philosophiques, voilà une destination coup de cœur.

Vannes, Lorient, France

Au bord de l'eau, Vannes offre une centre ancien avec des maisons aux colombages bien conservés. Des églises et musées se cachent à chaque recoin, quand ce n'est pas des crêperies. En longeant le port de plaisance on atteint l'océan et ses ballades bucoliques. impossible d'y résister, on ne pense qu'à y revenir.

Aix-en-Provence, France

La ville aux mille fontaines porte bien son surnom. quand on prend le temps d'explorer les multiples ruelles d'Aix-en-Provence, elles sont effectivement partout. On explore la vieille ville colorée avec plaisir, s'arrêtant dans un musée ou une galerie pour une pause artistique. puis direction le marché afin de se remplir le ventre de spécialités salées ou sucrées.

octobre

Valence, Avignon, Arles, Nice, France

Afin de clôturer l'été indien, quoi de mieux qu'un grand traintrip dans le sud-est de la France. Après une halte à Valence qui nous révèle une petite ville sympathique, direction le classique Avignon afin d'arpenter la vieille ville, la cité du pape et les ruelles aux moulins. Escale ensuite à Arles la romaine afin d'explorer ses vestiges antiques et goûter à ses charmes avant de se rendre à Nice pour se perdre dans ses rues ensoleillées et plonger les pieds dans la mer.

novembre et décembre

Angers, France

Habillée de marchés de noël en cette période hivernale, Angers se révèle plus festive que jamais. D'un bout à l'autre du centre ville, les odeurs de vin chaud et de bretzels fromagés embaument l'air. La promenade digestive du dimanche prend un autre tournant. On finit en beauté par une escale au château afin d'admirer la vue sur la maine.

[periodicoirreverentes]

MUSEO IRREVERENTES: “Ouvroir du béguinage à Gand” (1896)

Léon-Augustin Lhermitte (Francés, 1844-1925)Óleo sobre lienzo colocado sobre tabla58,8 x 83,2 cmColección privada

[mihailivanovpilinski]

George Minne 1866-1941 - Monument à Georges Rodenbach (1903), Gand, jardin du vieux béguinage

[theadmiringbog]

I focused on work, motherhood, leadership, intimacy, and citizenship and suggested that adopting some socialist policies could more effectively promote women’s autonomy and happiness in the twenty-first century.

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skeptics and haters have always scoffed at visions of a better world, especially if they might benefit women.

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the “status quo bias.” People prefer things to stay the same so they don’t have to take responsibility for decisions that might potentially change things for the worse.

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Patrilineality denotes a set of social customs that confer primacy on the father’s family line.

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Patrilineality is why fathers still “give the bride away” to the bridegroom during the traditional Western wedding ceremony, and it’s why about 70 percent of American women in 2015 and 90 percent of British women in 2016 still took their husband’s name after tying the knot.

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Patrilocality means that a new bride must leave her family and move into her husband’s household, usually with or near his family (think of Elizabeth Bennet moving from Longbourn to Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice).

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our deeper history of patrilocality means that men are expected to be breadwinners because a patrilocal culture assumes that the father must be the head of the new household and therefore primarily responsible for its provisioning.

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and passionate friendships,

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the social psychologist Eli Finkel challenges the idea of the “all-or-nothing marriage,” highlighting the importance of having “other significant others” in our lives.

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“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” said Albert Einstein in 1931. “For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”47

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Instead of paying a premium for privacy, what would happen if we chose to reorganize our lives to maximize our social connectedness?

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co-living keeps rents low by increasing shared livable space. Bedrooms and sometimes small bathrooms remain private, but living rooms and dining rooms are communal. Building one large kitchen costs less than building dozens of individual kitchens and these savings get (at least theoretically) passed on to residents.

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in Paris, a group of twenty older women created a néo-béguinage called the Maison des Babayagas,

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In general, American cohousing often retains a more explicit commitment to autonomous, owner-occupied households, with fewer obligations for collective labor, distinguishing itself from the much derided idea of “communes” or “cults” that populate the American imagination of cooperative living.77 As of 2017, more than a hundred and fifty cohousing communities flourished across the United States, many of them like the community at Two Echo in Maine, where people built their own homes on a property that they purchased in common with their neighbors.

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Not everything was rosy; other kids who grew up in American cohousing communities complained about the lack of privacy, the constant gossip, as well as of the racial and economic homogeneity.

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Imagine the advantage if those we lived near agreed beforehand on a set of protocols to handle any future conflicts. In a cohousing community, residents move in knowing the rules and come with a commitment to a more collective ideal of living together.

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Some might find it easier to buy a shared house or property and live together with a group of close friends, Golden Girls style. In

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pairs. A growing number of women now (anonymously) admit that they regret having kids, despite the social outrage they face for challenging pervasive stereotypes about motherhood.

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By making early childcare a socially provided good, we can ensure that children born into all families—no matter what their economic situation—enjoy the education and the emotional attention necessary to build a more harmonious society.

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In my earlier chapter on housing, I looked specifically at various utopian visions for cohabitation with nonconsanguineous others and how living together with larger groups of people can bind us in quasi-familial types of relationships, or what some people call “chosen families.”

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While many of us freely join our finances and intermingle our possessions upon marriage or in order to demonstrate our status as domestic partners, this practice only rarely occurs with our friends, neighbors, classmates, or colleagues with whom we maintain clear boundaries.

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If a wealthy firstborn son died without leaving a male heir, his money and properties automatically transferred to his younger brother, and thereby regularly to the Church. This led the historian Laura Betzig to propose that part of the reason the Catholic Church strictly enforced monogamous marriage was to further its own financial interests.

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non-monogamy still

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For millennia, women and girls—who are not the source of the problem—have been cut off from their kin networks; bartered, traded, or sold; rendered dependent on their fathers and husbands by legal codes and religious injunctions depriving them of opportunities to support themselves; and prevented from exercising basic control over their own bodies, so that one class of men can hoard resources that might otherwise be shared. Once these underlying dynamics are exposed, it is only reasonable to begin wondering whether there might be a better way of doing things. This is why utopians have long considered the nuclear family an important site for challenging the political and economic structures that produce status and resource hierarchies in the first place.

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we have to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions: Are we still perpetuating the monogamous nuclear family out of the illusion that biparental care is optimal, out of the fear of potential male violence or the perceived need for male resources, or because our religious traditions and state institutions define it as “normal”? Are we clinging to an outdated model of the family that served specific economic purposes because we are on autopilot? Or because we feel uncomfortable deviating from society’s expectations of how we should or shouldn’t arrange our most intimate lives? And what would a better kind of family look like anyway?

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August Bebel, who also viewed the monogamous nuclear family as a prison that trapped women by making them economically dependent on fathers, husbands, or sons.

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Rather than treating significant others as the sole source of affection, validation, emotional support, and sexual satisfaction, Kollontai hoped that young Soviets would collectively evolve beyond the need for socially imposed monogamy once they lived in a more equitable and cooperative society. Kollontai recognized the ubiquity of jealousy and possessiveness that people felt when they fell in love. Kollontai also accepted that infidelity, abandonment, and unrequited love caused people great emotional distress, and that passionate romantic love could drive people to do outrageous things. But she believed that people would be less wounded by betrayal or rejection if they received affection and support from a wider network of colleagues and friends.

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Kollontai wanted the Soviet state to promote a culture of robust platonic relationships. “Friendship is a more sociable emotion than sexual love,” Kollontai once said. “You can have many friends at a time, because there are different strings which vibrate in contact with different people.”

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In terms of our mating practices, we have a wide variety of potential models to choose from, models that all have long histories: including celibacy, serial monogamy, “complex marriage,” platonic pair bonding, polygamy, polyamory, and open non-monogamy.

consanguine and nonconsanguineous adults.

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An increasing number of single parents are also co-parenting with non-romantic partners, a trend often referred to as “platonic parenting.” Like platonic marriages, platonic parenting can involve two or more adults who agree to legally commit to raise a child together. Co-parents

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Daniela Cutas argues that platonic co-parenting or multi-parenting might actually be better for children because adults will tend to choose their potential co-parents more rationally than they choose their romantic partners.

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Militant Optimism

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“militant optimism,” a social and psychological commitment to imagining a better world and striving to make it real. Rather than thinking that historical processes lie beyond our control—that history happens to us—Bloch’s three-volume rumination on the politics of hope proposes that people actively produce history every day through the collective actions of those living through it as an ever-contingent present.

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In a similar way to how we collectively believe in paper money, many of us also embrace the fiction that the way we organize our private lives is the only way available to us. Even if we understand in the abstract about the pressures parents face, the strain that child-rearing places on romantic relationships, the high divorce rate, the prevalence of child abuse and intimate partner violence, and the very real possibilities of our own or our partner’s long-term unemployment, disability, or death, we replicate the domestic form that makes us the most vulnerable to these problems because it is convenient and because that’s what everyone expects of us.

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what matters most is taking the journey and considering the kinds of changes that might make our domestic lives less isolated, more flexible, and more ecologically sustainable: things like universal childcare, cooperative living, ethical education for self-reliance and critical thinking, shared property, and family expansionism. I’m not saying it’s easy to change these things, but the path to change lies in the continued struggle. As the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano once explained: “Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I’ll never reach it. So what’s the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep walking.”

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In terms of the architecture of our minds, hope is to the future what memory is to the past. If you have a good memory, you have the ability to remember specific details of events that occurred long ago.

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Hope, on the other hand, is the mental ability to imagine the future; to project forward a perception of what might come to pass and to orient yourself to those contingent possibilities.

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C. R. Snyder, one of the leading psychologists who did research in this area, proposed that “hope is defined as the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways.”

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people who are good at hoping are those who can set clear goals, can ponder multiple ways of attaining those goals, and muster the willpower to pursue them in the face of obstacles or the specter of disappointment.

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“hope training” can combat depression, anxiety, and stress.12 Most hope therapy originates from C. R. Snyder’s work and includes a variety of mental exercises such as hope mapping, guided daydreaming, hope journaling, and other techniques that allow people to clearly visualize specific goals (both great and small), to consider potential obstacles (both internal and external), and then unleash their imaginations to conjure up multiple pathways to how those obstacles might be overcome, not so different from the blue sky thinking that scientists do when faced with an intractable problem. One

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Hope differs from optimism because the latter is just a belief that everything will work out well, whereas hope is an active thought process that affirms our ability to influence the future course our lives or societies will take.

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This brings us to hope as an emotional state that exists on a spectrum from hopefulness to hopelessness. For Ernst Bloch, the opposites of hope are fear and anxiety.

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How many people in unhappy relationships stay because they are afraid of being alone? The fear of not meeting someone else overrides the possibility of meeting someone who might make them happier. Similarly, hopes for changing the world for the better get clobbered by fears of potentially making it worse.

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In a world of real or imagined scarcity, we arrange our domestic lives to protect ourselves against an uncertain future, hoarding as many resources and privileges as possible. In a society with less precarity and with resources more equitably distributed, we will worry less about hustling to make sure we have a bigger slice of the pie than those around us.

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If we lived in wider networks of people who shared their resources, we would become less precarious. Both processes are interdependent. It may be that we will geoengineer our way out of the climate crisis, and that one day we will all share unlimited, free solar power; enjoy universal basic incomes funded by our collective ownership of the robots and algorithms that will do most necessary labor; and live in real democratic societies where “material needs no longer exist,” but none of that is possible without fundamentally rethinking the basis upon which we organize our intimate lives to free us from selfish individualism.41

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This doesn’t mean that we will lose our individualism. It does mean that the ways we mark ourselves as different and interesting will be decoupled from how much those markers increase our value on competitive labor or marriage markets. Personal branding will be a thing of the past.

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Each one of us, right now, has the power to start building a different world, beginning with our own families and communities. There are countless things you can do to cultivate change in your daily life as it is. If you are in a monogamous pair, try to spend more time with your non-couple friends and make sure your partner does the same. Nurture all sorts of lateral relationships by finding novel ways to share with your neighbors and colleagues. Get back in touch with old friends. Chat with people at the grocery store. Daydream.

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If you have kids, let them spend more time with their grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends. Try to swap more childcare with other parents and create long-term parenting pods. Consider different housing arrangements or join a book club or some form of continuing adult education. And if you have the freedom and opportunity to do so, why not shake things up entirely? Start a free store or join an upcycling collective. Uproot and resettle in an intentional community or ecovillage. Explore different forms of cooperative living and working. Adopt a mononym. Try to meet new people way outside of your established circle of acquaintances. Make strangers into kin.

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We must imagine the future that we want, to think of it as a concrete goal, and consider the different pathways available to realize that future, no matter how outlandish or impossible this future might seem to us now.

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As the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman observes, embracing a positive vision for the future usually means “weathering a storm of ridicule. You’ll be called naive. Obtuse. Any weakness in your reasoning will be mercilessly exposed. Basically, it’s easier to be a cynic.”45 That is why we need to hope together: out loud, with each other, every day.

[redtravel15]

Beguinage in Bruges

I chose this place because it was already on our group trip route. 

Beguines lived in the Beguinages throughout the reformation (13th to 16th centuries). I had trouble finding information about beguinages in general being connected to the reformation, let alone this beguinage specifically. I do know, however, that Beguines represented a less strict version of nuns. In that way, they could possibly be considered reformers themselves. They did not swear lifelong vows of celibacy; they only had to be celibate while they lived as a Beguine. As a Beguine, they were recognized as being more focused on God than the average person, without all of the obligations and vows associated with nuns and monks. 

If I had been Catholic, I probably would have been a nun. I certainly would’ve been a beguine. Before this trip, I did not know that these places existed, and I am fascinated by them. I think the family of sisters that would be created in a place like a béguinage would be wonderful to have, especially if you were unmarried. And not having the burden of never being able to marry would be a wonderful aspect of life as a beguine that a nun would not have. I was just surprised that these places existed at all, and I wonder a little bit why they don’t still. 

[indiaimagine]

A Béguinage is a complex of buildings designed to house beguines. It has been a heritage site for over 750 years and is a pleasant change for visitors.Read More... https://bit.ly/3WJdBwk#flemish #bruges #cultural #beguinages #tour #world #indiaimagine #travelphotography #travelgram #blogger #travelblogger #travelinggram #traveltheglobe #travelalone #travelmoments #blog #travellust #blogtour #photooftheday #picoftheday #lifestyle

[churchhistoryguy]

Princely Béguinage of the Vineyard, Bruges, Belgium

The Beguinage of Bruges is a significant piece of history for the city. A beguinage was a complex built to house “beguines”, or Christian women of lay religious orders. These beguines were different from nuns in that they took no vows (although most did not marry) and were not cut off from society. They simply lived together in the complex and devoted themselves to Christian living, often living in poverty and spending their time caring for the needy. The Beguinage was founded around the year 1244, and has since been an important piece of the religious history of Bruges.

I chose this particular place for my blog because it is very different from the other locations and cathedrals. Beguinages were places of unique importance in the development of Christianity in Europe. These groups of women developed and displayed a religion that was very personal. They took the words of Christ and transformed their entire lives around it. Their freedom of a religious life with no vows, and their personal relationship with God, planted seeds in the hearts of European christianity that would come to fruition in the principles of the Reformation Movement.

I was surprised by the tranquility of the Beguinage in Bruges. In a city like that, it is easy to get lost in the sights and sounds of your environment. When I stepped into the Beguinage, I was immediately quieted by the silence and peacefulness of the green space. It is no wonder that religion holds such a strong presence there. I immediately felt reminded of the peace and power of God in that place.

[deepinsightphotography]

Luis Feria (Belgian, 1927-1998),

The Postman at the Begijnhof (Béguinage), Bruges, Belgium, 1959