"Like Venice again, Bruges was once the commercial and banking center of the world. This was in the Fourteenth century. The center of commercial activity had moved from Italy to Flanders, and Bruges was then Flanders' greatest market. World trade came up the river Zwyn which then gave it a harbor; merchants from the four quarters of the world maintained headquarters in the city; and its bourse regulated the exchange rate for all Europe. Ghent was a strong rival, but until the Zwyn finally silted up in 1490 Bruges held its own. At the height of its power Bruges had a population of 200,000; now the inhabitants number about 55,000.
Had Notorious U-Boat Nest.
"Not to be cheated of a port by Nature's destructive forces, the people of Bruges have built several canals to the North Sea. The largest and most direct leads eight miles to Zebrugge (meaning 'the seaport of Bruges'). This port and its canal and the basin, at Bruges figured prominently in the World War. The Germans developed a strong U-boat nest at Bruges from which their underwater commerce destroyers went out to sink many an allied ship and to which they returned for repairs and outfitting. A tremendously strong shelter with a concrete roof six feet thick, built over the water, stands near the Bruges end of the sea canal today, a monument to German U-boat activities. Allied bombing planes were unable to find the exact location of this camouflaged nest, and probably would have been able to inflict but little damage on its roof even if direct hits had been made.  been scored. 