An iconic monument
Along Baron Ruzettelaan stands an iconic monument that needs our attention and care: the La Brugeoise Gate.
Bruges Foundation was recently able to acquire the porch.
La Brugeoise
The gate highlights the former main access to the La Brugeoise industrial site from Baron Ruzettelaan. The company La Brugeoise et Nivelles - now Alstom - was and still is a world player in the field of (train and tram) mobility. As a symbol of its rich past, this gate tells both the story of the company and its role as an employer in the Bruges region, and of its employees and its neighbourhood.
Nowadays the gateway has lost its function of main entrance to the industrial site.
Nevertheless, the gate still forms an important architectural, historical and landscape element in the Baron Ruzettelaan. It still connects with the company, but equally with the bicycle bridge bover de canal, cycle paths and school.
This monumental portico is one of the rare witnesses to the industrial history of the city of Bruges within the urban landscape of Baron Ruzettelaan.
Its location in the axis of Bruges Cemetery Road across Baron Ruzettelaan, the architectural quality of the whole, and its ford and connection to the spacious surroundings remains an attraction.
The importance of this entrance to a historic business was previously recognised by the protection by MB of 8 July 1999 as a monument of the monumental portico and as a protected townscape of the adjacent buildings and the road to the canal.
The porch
The brick porch was (presumably) built about 1905 with screen gable of three bays.
In the centre, we see a wide passage for cars and cyclists, flanked on the left and right by pedestrian passageways.
The central bluestone arch structure rests on stone columns with capitals with acanthus leaves. To the left and right is a smaller passage for pedestrians under a half-leaning bluestone arch construction.
At the rear, the pedestrian passages are finished with a pitched roof. Two low canopies are attached in line with the pedestrian passages.
The brick porch has a stepped finish. The steps are finished with natural stone cover plates. Four cantilevered piers ritualise the bays and carry a natural stone crown with hogel.
The main passageway is crowned by a natural stone field with inscription 'La Brugeoise' and above it a remnant of a wrought-iron lamp holder.
The portico is flanked on the Baron Ruzettelaan side by two lean-to brick walls with remnants of former benches resting on stone consoles. Originally, these brick piers were raised higher and filled in with wrought-iron fencing, serving as garden fencing for the adjacent properties. This fencing has been lost and the cover stones have been placed on lowered piers.
The portico is flanked on the left and right by 2 buildings in a historicising Bruges style, created in the same period and operated as a café. Clientele guaranteed!
Of the various entrances to the company, this portico is the most prestigious and clearly designed to intimidate customers as well as staff.
Freight does not come in via this road, the pontoon bridge over the canal is too weak for that. That comes in via the canal by ship, or by rail.
La Brugeoise builds several groups of houses for its executives in Assebroek.
The presence of a tram line - which ensured connectivity to the city for workers - perhaps explains the need for some benches and canopies flanking the porch.
The road under the portico, today's Lappersfort Street, connects to a flat truss swing bridge, manually operated at set times by an employee of the company and operating as an access until the 1970s. It has since been replaced by a fixed high bicycle and pedestrian bridge.
Baron Ruzettelaan
Today's Baron Ruzettelaan - formerly Kortrijkse Heerweg - has been the winding connecting road between Bruges and Kortrijk for centuries. In 1734-1735, the stretch between the Katelijnepoort and the Steenbrug bridge was straightened and laid out as a paved avenue.
On the merged Popp maps of Sint-Michiels and Assebroek (1842), we see that the built-up area along the renewed avenue is still very limited and mainly located at the Katelijnepoort and at Steenbrugge.
A railway line and station arrived at Steenbrugge in 1863. A tram line from Bruges to Zwevezele arrived in 1895.
All these changes result in Baron Ruzettelaan quickly taking on a more important role from 1900 onwards. Due to the presence of the Ghent-Bruges canal and the railway, the population and commercial activity increases around 1900. Along Baron Ruzettelaan many family businesses, industrial and service enterprises, local shops and inns settle down.
The establishment of La Brugeoise was not yet under discussion at that time. The plot between the canal and Baron Ruzettelaan - then in the territory of Sint-Michiels and in the extension of Kerkhofstraat - had not yet been parcelled out and laid out to connect to the company.
In 1902, the stretch between the Katelijne Bridge and Steenbrugge Bridge was renamed "Steenbrugsche Wandeling".
In the middle of road one can see a cobbled section for carriages and wagons, with a separate green bed for the tram line to Steenbrugge, with a footpath lined with rows of trees on both sides.
From 1905, N.V. La Brugeoise establishes itself across the canal. The factory is accessed from Assebroek via the monumental entrance portico built there as the main entrance to the company. A pedestrian bridge over the canal will provide easy access from Baron Ruzettelaan. For the people of Assebroek, La Brugeoise is an important employer. It creates a populous neighbourhood with simple workers' houses and housing for executives.
The avenue continues to be built up, including villas inspired by the English cottages, and upper-storey houses mostly in the Bruges style.
The connection to this beautifully landscaped avenue, with its rich development, and the finishing buildings to be realised there, proves on the importance that the company La Brugeoise attaches to a prestigious presence and welcome of its customers and employees.
Brief history of company La Brugeoise
La Brugeoise is an important industrial site, created in the early 20th century, with an extensive social and cultural associative life including sports infrastructure, a clubhouse to the south of the company and housing for clerks and workers between the Bruges-Ghent Canal and Baron Ruzettelaan.
The company was created on the initiative of Joseph De Jaegher (1818-1888), who owned a hardware store on the Burg in Bruges around 1851. In 1855, this shop was expanded with an iron foundry "Ateliers J. De Jaegher", located in Raamstraat. It becomes - thanks to the growing importance of the train industry - one of the largest metal companies in the country before the end of the century. In 1891, the foundry merged with a sister company from nearby Gieterijstraat "Usines Ferdinand Feldhaus" and continued to operate under the name "S.A. Ateliers de Construction, Forges et Aciéries de Bruges".
At the turn of the century, a suitable, larger site outside the city centre is sought. The site next to the Ghent-Ostend canal, where plans for a modern railway connection already existed at the time, was chosen.
As early as 1905, both office buildings and workshops were built. The factory flourished under the name "S.A. La Brugeoise" and employed 1,500 workers.
Several mergers and international partnerships followed and today the company is known as Alstom.
The Power station or turbine hall, built in 1912 is protected as a monument.
Meaningful and Cautious Recovery
The La Brugeoise porch has a urgent approach needed. A lack of care resulted in neglect and damage to the monument. Damage is currently acute to roofs and the low canopies behind the portico: leaking gutters and a faulty roof seal are affecting the underlying woodwork to such an extent that an urgent solution is now required. The portico itself could also use a thorough preventive maintenance job with local repairs to natural stone, brickwork and wrought-iron elements.
The connecting road between Baron Ruzettelaan and the canal, which runs under the portico, is also neglected and unattractive.
Bruges Foundation, together with Flanders Real Estate Heritage and the city authorities, is drawing up an ambitious, step-by-step plan to tackle all aspects of the portico.
The estimate of the works on the portico is now around €150,000.
Bruges Foundation already drew up an ambitious, step-by-step plan to tackle all aspects of the porch.
The estimate of the works on the portico is now around €150,000.
Brugge Foundation is waiting for approval of the management plan and commitment of grants for certain works.
- Start of first works: spring 2025
- Completion: end 2026
- Road approach: in consultation with city of Bruges
We are looking for YOU!
- Join us in restoring the La Brugeoise portico to its glory.
- Preserve the unique charm of the porch and preserve it for future generations.
- Be a direct part of the history and future of this monument.
- Share what you know about this porch and the company La Brugeoise with us! Then we will soon be able to share it with everyone.
How do you help us?
Become Volunteer and support us in this project and provide us with stories, documents and photos.
Support us Financial. Your contribution, however small or in any form, does make a big difference!
Become Friend of the Bruges Foundation and join us in giving Bruges' heritage a new purpose.
Do you give more than 40 euros a year? Then you get a tax rebate of 45%.
Thank you for supporting this piece of Bruges heritage!
The Porch is Open... Join Us in Writing History!
Find out more
The preliminary draft of our management plan for this gate and site can be viewed here.
