Concertgebouw in Bruges

The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in the Belgian city of Bruges. The building was built for "Bruges 2002 European Capital of Culture", though there were already in the 1990 plans for such a project to start in Bruges.

Besides a large hall which has 1,290 seats on three levels, there is also the chamber music hall that can accommodate 320 people. On the ground floor there is the Concert Hall Café and on the seventh floor, the top floor of the Lantern Tower, there is an exhibition space for contemporary art. It has an excellent view of the city.

The Concertgebouw designed by the architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem offers excellent acoustics.

The opinions on the architectural appearance of the building are quite divided. Some Bruges find it a cumbersome structure that does not fit within the historical context of the city. Others, on the other hand, find the harmony between modern and historical architecture.

The facades are covered with thousands of red terracotta tiles, 68,000 in total, all baked in Saint-Omer in northern France. The Lantern Tower itself consists mainly of glass. The interior is rather austere.