Brugsch Volk - The world of Karel De Wolf

From the landing of his pharmacy in the Zuidzandstraat, Karel De Wolf looks out every day at the Bruges station (at 't Zand), which he calls 'fake art'. The station square with its stately hotels is also a thorn in the side of the pharmacist & folklorist: “From the 1840s to 1890, disastrous Bruges has known one of the greatest plagues ... a flood of fools who had the passion to demolish, fill in, and vault over.” But even when many years later, in 1936, a new station is outside Bruges, Karel De Wolf fulminates: “The stranger, who comes to Bruges for the 1st time and sticks his head out of the station, certainly says to himself: - Sapperloot! I've been fooled! And is that Bruges? ... It's all style Plaster-Bak-Nineteenth century!” Ninety years later, we leave from pharmacy ‘De Cleynen Thems’ for a walk with storyteller Frank Slabbynck of the Brugs Vertelcollectief De Op-Lichters. Based on dozens of photos from the Brugse Beeldbank, we go in search of the world of Karel De Wolf: the station, the ‘Gatje van de Capucientjes’, the slaughterhouse, the barrier at the Smedenstraat, the countless inns, and of course the ‘Bruges’ people about whom Karel has written so juicily. In collaboration with Vertelcollectief De Op-Lichters Guides: Frank Slabbynck