Bruges
- This article is about the city in Belgium. See also Bruges, France.
Bruges (Dutch: Brugge) is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders of which it is the capital. The municipality comprises the city of Bruges proper and the towns of Assebroek, Dudzele, Koolkerke, Lissewege, Sint-Andries, Sint-Jozef, Sint-Kruis, Sint-Michiels, Sint-Pieters, Zeebrugge, and Zwankendamme. On January 1st, 2000 Bruges had a total population of 116,246 (56,292 males and 59,954 females). The total area is 139.48 km² which gives a population density of 833.40 inhabitants per km².
Like Ghent, but on a more concentrated scale, it has most of its medieval architecture intact. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Belgium, and was European Capital of Culture in 2002 together with Salamanca. A large area of the center of town is carfree.
The Dutch mathematician Simon Stevin (1548-1620) was born in Bruges.
The fictional character, Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movie series is also supposed to be from Bruges, although he forgot that he must be able to speak Dutch, since he was born in Bruges.
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