Bruges and Bridges – An EDEN Senior Fellow Reflects on the 28th EDEN Annual conference, June 2019

When I was a young boy, I grew up in a very nice town in Belgium, with a great medieval history, called… yes, Bruges, or in Dutch, Brugge. For those speaking my mother tongue, this sounds like ‘brug’ or in plural ‘bruggen’ (in English: bridges). And honestly, when I was that young boy, I never doubted that the name of my city was derived from the bridges across the many water canals in the town. Later I learnt the real etymology, and it is not exactly true, but for sure it has to do with water, harbour and other constructions