​CategoriesCategoriesEnglishCULTURE, SOCIETYBody in medieval coffin found in Bruges identified as wealthy knight26 June 2024 The body in a lead coffin from the Middle Ages found in Bruges a year ago turns out to be that of a wealthy knight called Baudouin I The 14th-century coffin was found on the site where Eekhout Abbey once stood archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery during excavations at the site where Eekhout Abbey – the oldest abbey in Bruges – once stood They explored the site before the start of the construction of the new BRUSK exhibition hall they found a lead coffin from the 14th century in a medieval burial vault A lead coffin was usually only for the richest people "It was very expensive at the time but allowed the body to be preserved for longer," said archaeologist Dieter Verwerft the archaeologists investigated who was buried in the coffin The skeleton was found to belong to a man aged between 25 and 40 Based on the location of the grave and the lead coffin researchers assumed it was a powerful and wealthy person From a coat of arms on the walls of the vault it could be deduced that it was one of the lords of Assebroek a powerful family with close ties to Eekhout Abbey Thanks to research by the C14 lab at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels archaeologists were finally able to figure out that the mystery man in the coffin was Baudouin I "He was a knight who managed to accumulate enormous wealth He controlled the river Reie and earned his money by collecting tolls at one of Bruges' city gates," said the experts Further archaeological and historical studies around the discovery should offer additional insights into life in Bruges in the Middle Ages #FlandersNewsService | Annual Procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges © BELGA PHOTO IMAGEBROKER Copy linkGet updates in your mailboxYour email addressSubscribeBy clicking "Subscribe" I confirm I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy rapid and high-quality information 24 hours a day from Belgium and abroad to all Belgian media not to mention entertainment and lifestyle our journalists and press photographers produce hundreds of photos and news stories Since the end of March 2022 English has been added as a language businesses and various organisations that need reliable information Belga News Agency also offers a comprehensive range of corporate services to meet all their communication needs www.belganewsagency.eu This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page A Bruges court has ordered Alain Coessemaker from Assebroek to sell his house The decision comes after a never-ending dispute between Alain and his neighbours over a number of trees Penalty payments had reached over 800,000 euros The Vondelstraat in Bruges is the scene of a serious neighbour dispute Neighbours to the left and right side of Alain Coessemaeker's property are complaining about various trees in the front garden claiming these are too close to the edge of the premises They take the matter to court and win the case Alain Coessemaker is ordered to remove the trees and has to pay 100 euros in compensation for each day this hasn't happened And there's more: the penalty payment is lifted to 1,000 euros per day because the judge estimates that the man does not want to remove them it takes two years before the trees are actually removed Alain Coessemaeker argues that his mother died when he was four years old and that his father was incapable of showing love and affection whicht is why he (literally) fell in love with his trees "I looked for love with my trees and they gave me love to make people think about other ways to handle nature than just demolishing trees."