Biblia Brugge

Isabel Lowyck • nov 29, 2022

Are you curious about what we can still learn from the Bible today? Then visit Biblia Brugge, the newly-opened Bible experience centre in the Major Seminary. You pass through long cloisters on your way before receiving a warm welcome at Biblia: ‘Take a seat and get ready for a spectacular journey.’ Once you’re comfortably seated, illustrator Klaas Verplancke’s animated film begins to play. You see various questions. Do you dare to be yourself? Do you dare to discover the unknown world? Do you dare to listen in silence? These challenging questions keep you on your toes for the rest of the visit.

The audio guide takes you on a journey through the world of the Bible, walking in the footsteps of Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Jesus. Who are they? What inspired them? All of them dared to venture into the unknown. These Biblical stories continue to inspire us to this day.

The centre’s design is modern and inviting. You can touch and feel the objects. Biblia Brugge was developed by Bailleul design agency. Visitors are invited to actively take part. Via the digital screens, you can request information about your favourite evangelist or the most important quotes, and you can take part in a quiz to test your knowledge of the Bible. It is a multisensory experience, inviting you to blow on the ram’s horn, sniff the herbs… The whole experience sometimes feels as if you are in the world of the Bible.

A big bookcase with many older looking religious books and plaques explaining more about them and the exhibition

The centre is divided into three rooms. You can walk between them via a long cloister. You can take a seat in the cloister while a mirror is held before you. Look into it and rediscover the animated film’s challenging questions. Stay on your toes!

The last room evokes a library of the history of the Bible. Here, you learn that the word ‘Bible’ comes from the Koine Greek word ‘biblia’, meaning ‘scrolls’. You are also invited to read Bible excerpts. A quote from the Dutch philosopher Charles Vergeer (born 1947) may help here: “Biblical texts are like smouldering ashes. You have to blow on them to reignite them, to set the words ablaze.”

A display about the name Jacob, whcih mentions several Dutch or Belgian versions of the name

My passage through the exhibition will not be lost; I was able to write my name in the stars. A world of a kind you don’t see every day was opened up to me in an accessible visitor centre.

Biblia is open from 7 October, every afternoon from 2 to 6 pm except Sundays and Mondays.