Ad Brudgias Portum

Communities, Material Culture, and Lived Places in Bruges’ Maritime Cultural Landscape

Image coming soon

Extent: 318 pages

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: The Archaeology of Northern Europe

Language: English

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(February 2027)

ISBN: 9782503623238

Price: $175.00

As an international gateway for goods, people and thoughts, the Bruges’ harbour system can be considered as a complex, dynamic maritime cultural landscape, with an interconnected network of small and larger ports, all lined along the Zwin tidal inlet. The interdisciplinary research presented in this book sheds a new light on this specific environment using a wide array of archaeological, historical and geomorphological methods.


Bruges was one of medieval Europe’s most important gateways, linking the North Sea world with the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and, indirectly, the Asian Silk Road. Through a complex port system of engineered tidal channels, outer harbours, and maritime communities, goods, people, and ideas could circulate across these vast distances. Such far-reaching connectivity fostered a distinctive cultural environment, visible not only in art and architecture but also in the material culture of everyday life. What makes Bruges especially significant is the subsequent trajectory of this maritime environment. As the city gradually lost its central position in international trade, the land- and seascape that had sustained its gateway function fell into disuse, and much of the extensive outport infrastructure was abandoned. For later scholarship, however, this historical rupture has proved an unexpected asset. Just as the city of Bruges is often regarded as an exceptionally preserved jewel of medieval urban architecture, its associated harbour landscape constitutes a rare archaeological time capsule of medieval maritime connectivity, sealed beneath a thin layer of polder clay and largely untouched by later construction. This volume offers the first interdisciplinary exploration of Bruges’ medieval port system as a maritime cultural landscape. Bringing together archaeology, history, geology, and material culture studies, it explores how ships, landscapes, commodities, and communities together sustained one of the most connected trading environments of the medieval world.