Relais & Chateaux Hotel Heritage

The private sun terrace cut into the roof — for a pre- or post-dinner drink, with the thirteenth-century Belfort tower at eye level.

Hotel Heritage sits on Niklaas Desparsstraat, a short walk from the Markt and the Burg in the centre of UNESCO-listed Bruges. Twenty-two rooms and suites distributed across the 1869 neo-classical building, each individually decorated. High ceilings, period chandeliers, antique furnishings — the register is fin-de-siècle rather than medieval, which sets the property apart from the gothic mood most other Bruges hotels lean into.

Le Mystique, the dining room, runs at Michelin-listed level under chef Gregory Slembrouck. Flemish dishes worked through European technique, oak-panelled walls, candlelit evenings, an extensive European wine list. The bar is Le Magnum. Breakfast is served in the original 1869 room.

The hotel's signature is the layering of periods within one building. The fitness room occupies a fourteenth-century vaulted cellar; the spa, Le Moment by Sothys, sits separately within the property; the breakfast room is 1869; the upper-floor suites look directly onto the Belfort. The 40m² Junior Suites on the theatre and belfry side are the rooms to request.

The owners run the house personally. Twice-daily housekeeping, evening turndown, private horse-carriage pickup from the entrance, private boat tours of Bruges' canals are all arranged through reception.