A 12th-century Romanesque basilica with a Gothic upper floor, this church houses a venerated relic of Christ and is well worth a visit for the richness of its design and its other treasures. It is the repository of a fragment of cloth stained with what is said to be the blood of Christ, wiped from his body after the crucifixion by Joseph of Arimathea. Legend says the relic was brought to Bruges at the time of the Second Crusade by Count of Flanders Diederik van de Elzas, who received it from the patriarch of Jerusalem and donated it to the church in 1150. More likely, it arrived later from the Byzantine capital Constantinople, which in 1204 was sacked by the Crusader army of Count of Flanders Baldwin IX.
The relic is embedded in a rock-crystal vial, which itself is held inside a small glass cylinder adorned at each end with a golden crown. Normally the relic is kept in a magnificent tabernacle on a side altar in the upstairs chapel, but it is brought out regularly so that the faithful can kiss it. In the Basilica Museum, a reliquary created in 1617 by Bruges goldsmith Jan Crabbe has a gem-encrusted hexagonal case to hold the relic, and at the top a golden statue of the Virgin. A second reliquary, dating from 1612, with a lid from 1716, is silver with a golden flower garland added in 1890. Every year, in the colorful Procession of the Holy Blood, on Ascension Day, the bishop of Bruges leads the relic through the streets, accompanied by costumed residents acting out biblical scenes.
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