After a fire in the city's Belfry in 1280, the old Ghyselhuus, which had already fallen into disuse as the jail of the count of Flanders, was still the meeting place for the city council. In 1376, the Ghyselhuus was pulled down and replaced by a new purpose built council building. Count Louis laid the foundation stone.[2] Responsibility for its construction was given to Jan Roegiers,[3] and the project was completed late in 1421.[3] The City Hall is the earliest late Gothic monumental-style municipal council building in Flanders or Brabant: its flamboyant opulence testifies to the city's economic and political power[3] at a time when the population of Bruges is believed to have reached more than 37,000, or even 45,000 people.[4] The pioneering stone facade of the oldest part, which during the 16th and 17th centuries was several times extended towards the south, inspired in quick succession the city halls of Brussels, Ghent, Leuven and Oudenaarde.[3] The building's admirers highlight the effect of the "Brugian span", referring to the abundance of repeating systematically positioned niches encompassing the windows, though it is not clear that this effect was invented in Bruges. The statues under the stone baldachin-canopies on the building's facade have been renewed several times. At the time of the French Revolution, all the statues were destroyed. A small number of genuine pieces are now included in the collections of the city museum. The crenellated facade is topped off with little turrets and the roof is decorated with its own little crests and dormers. In 1766, the door on the left side of the building's facade was repositioned to make the overall effect more symmetrical.

A historic gothic architecture. You can enter and see a small part of the hall for free, but there is an entrance fee for the museum.

A historic gothic architecture, located in the famous market square of Brugges. You can enter and see a small part of the hall for free but there is an entrance fee for the museum. Due to the shortage of time we didn’t enter the museum.

Absolutely beautiful building. Best for photography early morning or late afternoon, otherwise the façade is all in shadow.

Beautiful building with a history musuem inside. We visited the musuem and the downloadable audio guide was quite good explaining what each painting on the walls meant. The interactive map visuals also helped a lot with understanding the transformation and history of brugge. Would recommend coming inside here.

Bruges, the capital of West Flanders in northwest Belgium, is distinguished by its canals, cobbled streets and medieval buildings. Its port, Zeebrugge, is an important center for fishing and European trade. In the city center’s Burg square, the 14th-century Stadhuis (City Hall) has an ornate carved ceiling. Nearby, Markt square features a 13th-century belfry with a 47-bell carillon and 83m tower with panoramic views. Location : It is about 95 km from Brussels. Public transport is available. but better to take a tour package so as to cover Ghent as well. We took Getyourguide package. A nice bus with a guide and audio kit was well organised. Entry Ticket: The boat ride was optional. We did not take the option, rather we moved around on our own. One can opt while booking or at the place. What we did : The place is very nice to walk around. Lot of gothic style buildings, lot of places to eat and drink. We looked around and decided to take " Historium". It was really good. It has a VR show, museum, and climb up in the tower to have beautiful panoramic city view. It was worth 25 euros per person. It talks about the history of Bruges. VR show was really good.

It's a beautiful city hall. :)

One of the most beautiful city in Europe. It's call the Venice of the North. It's a beautiful medieval town

Its nice to go up! If the safety barrior was better to see outside can be amazing

We went before Covid to visit Brugge. We hired bicycles and cycled our way around. I can recommend hiring a cycle, it was a lovely way to explore Brugge. I didn’t go inside the city hall but from the outside it was an impressive building. The square where the building is at was busy with a lot of people, you see horse carriages and there was a nice atmosphere! I liked it.

Tourists beware! Do not waste your money on this experience of visiting the museum at city hall. It encompasses two rooms. First one being the city hall, the nice pictures online seem to be the draw card to get people in. It's nothing special. The second room is an audio experience where you stand around for 20 minutes and watch some map trace lines of canals. Couple of other items scattered around the room. During us listening to the audio experience the staff member told our children to stand back from the projected visual. They weren't touching it as we had instructed them and were standing trying to see over the edge. If your display is that precious maybe do not allow children who are trying to view the only marginally interesting thing in the entire room. Pretty unimpressed.

Good information about the history of the Brugge city and its City Hall. An informative audio guide keeps the visit engaging

An historic place in the centre of Bruges where public is allowed to roam freely in the main entrance hall but one has to pay to visit the museum. The interior is dull looking and dark coloured walls and floor with less aesthetic appeal.

Maybe the best place to visit in Bruges. Here you will find a lot of restaurants, waffles and beer.

Gotic hall, nicely decorated!All over it has pictures through which history is told. It took them 9 years to agree which picture should be drawn! You read the story by your self from a plastic paper.Entrance 7 euro for this hall and the court house.

Nice room Inside the city hall

Wonderfully elaborate paintings along the City Hall. The paintings are well preserved and you can grab a laminated poster to read about each scene. Tickets cost €7 and grants entry to the adjacent Bruges Vrije.

Beautiful old building in Gothic architecture. Most happening place of Bruges.

It’s always great if you can learn more in history about a lovely place. The early 20th century paintings on the walls can explain a lot , from the Order of golden fleece to the first of the canals, really worth the time.

Is it nice? Yes, from inside out. Outside facade is very nice and historical. It is big and grand. Inside, in museum side you can find beautifull celebration and meeting room. It is “relativly” new, but still come on, it is Amazing. Even today the room is used for offical events and weddings. In the other room is history and evolution of the city in the very TOP presentstion form.

The City Hall is included in the Bruges Museum Card. For 32 euros you can visit 13 museums / churches / places of interest and you have 72 hours to do it. The City Hall is a relatively small museum. You can visit the gothic hall on the first floor where murals from the early 20th century present the history of Bruges. In the historical room next door, you can discover the history of Bruges and the sea.

A beautiful small museum featuring a gothic hall depicting important events in the history of Bruges. Explanations and details are well explained in guides offered in several languages or by audio guide (qr code scanning).

Beautiful gothic hall with plenty of information! There's a free audio guide through their website that gives extensive information about the frescoes and decorative elements in this stunning gothic hall. With over 20 audio tracks, there's so much to explore while listening. Absolutely gorgeous and so well documented, definitely worth a visit!

A very impressive and ancient building. We couldn't go in on the Saturday as a wedding was taking place but that was quite an event with a traditional guard of honour outside. Also the bells in the Belfort tower played the wedding march as the bride and groom came out. We had no problem visiting on Sunday.

Beautiful building, didn't go inside as it costs, but also stunning from the outside.

If you are in the square this building is hard to miss. The architecture is stunning and very beautiful. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside since we were on a tight schedule but I heard it's also worth visiting. It's worth stopping by whether you go inside or outside.

This is a cool historic building in Burg square in Bruges. It's next to the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which is a great building to visit, so you can probably check this out on the way. The entrance was covered by a concern venue, but we could still the see architecture, which was beautiful. Definitely worth a stop!

Nice little museum and wedding hall within the old town hall. Interior is painted with a historical timeline. Beautiful architecture. It is a very short tour so you have plenty of time to see everything. Friendly staff.

Important place!

One of the magnificent structure of bruges.. Never seen anything like that anywhere in Belgium. Unfortunately this turned out to be our last stop of the evening and could not get inside at 5.30 pm.

Very nice place to learn the history of Brugge. Animated room is amazing.