Five Free Things to Do in Kortrijk: Towers, a Beguinage and 1302

Two round medieval towers face each other across the Leie, one on each bank, with a bridge between them. They are the emblem of Kortrijk and the only surviving part of the old river defences. Stand on the bridge between them, then walk down to the water and look back up, that is the view the city puts on everything.

Note the contrast while you are there: the riverbanks were widened and rebuilt in this century, so you get thirteenth-century stone towers next to deliberately modern bridges. It works better than it sounds.

Tucked behind the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk is a walled quarter of small whitewashed houses around narrow lanes and a chapel, a beguinage, where lay religious women lived in community from the thirteenth century onwards. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage list along with the other Flemish beguinages, it is free to walk into, and it is completely silent. Five minutes from the market square and most visitors never find it.

The tower standing alone in the middle of the market square is what remains of the old cloth hall, and it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France inscribed by UNESCO as a group. Belfries were civic rather than religious, a tower built by a town to say it governed itself. In a region where that mattered a great deal, this one is worth a look up.

The Leie was the reason for Kortrijk. Flax was soaked in this water to separate the fibre, the river ran golden brown with it, and the linen made here was traded across Europe. The industry has gone; the river has been reopened and widened, and the walk along it is the pleasantest free hour in the city. Buda island, in the middle, is now the arts quarter.

Just outside the centre, on 11 July 1302, a Flemish militia of townsmen and craftsmen defeated a French army of mounted knights. They collected hundreds of golden spurs from the dead and hung them in a church, which gave the battle its name. It is still the founding story of Flemish civic identity, and 11 July is the official holiday of the Flemish Community because of it.

The battlefield itself is ordinary ground with a monument. There is a museum in town that tells the story properly and is not free, but standing on the field and knowing what happened there costs nothing.

The textile museum, in an old flax warehouse by the river, covers what linen did to this city. And the 1302 museum makes sense of the battle if the field alone leaves you wanting more.

Everything above is within twenty minutes of everything else, but Kortrijk does not signpost itself well and the beguinage in particular is easy to walk past. A city game gives you a route of puzzles that links the towers, the square and the river and explains each stop as you reach it, which fills an afternoon better than wandering, and costs less than a guided tour.

Not sure how it works? Read how to play first.

Broel towers, beguinage, belfry, riverbank. In that order it is an easy and almost free afternoon. Want help planning something for a group? Get in touch. Heading up the coast? Our guide to the quiet corners of Bruges is an hour away.