In the Markt (Market Sq.), heraldic banners float from venerable facades. This square, along with the Burg , is the heart of Bruges and the focal point of your sightseeing. Most major points of interest in the city are no more than 5 or 10 minutes' walk away.
The sculpture group in the center of the Markt depicts a pair of Flemish heroes, butcher Jan Breydel and weaver Pieter de Coninck. The two led an uprising in 1302 against the wealthy merchants and nobles who dominated the guilds, then went on to win an against-all-odds victory over French knights later that same year in the Battle of the Golden Spurs. The small, castlelike building called the Craenenburg (it's now a restaurant), on the corner of Sint Amandsstraat at Grote Markt, was used to imprison Crown Prince Maximilian of Austria in 1482. In exchange for that humiliation, Maximilian later on exacted a penalty from the citizens of Bruges that added a note of pure beauty to the city: He obliged them to keep swans in the canals forever. The large neo-Gothic Provinciaal Hof (Provincial Palace House) dates from the 1800s and houses the government of the province of West Flanders.
