A city councilor in Brugge, Belgium, wants visitors to stop swiping cobblestones off its medieval streets.
The historic center of Brugge has been a UNESCO heritage site since 2000 due to gates, a defense tower and ramparts that have survived since the Middle Ages. The U.N. agency noted that the city’s “medieval street pattern, with main roads leading toward the important public squares, has mostly been preserved.”
The councilor, Franky Demon, told the Belga News Agency that “an estimated 50 to 70 cobblestones disappear per month. And that figure may be even higher. The phenomenon increases significantly, especially during busy tourist periods such as spring and summer.”
Due to this, people are at risk of tripping, and the city has to pay $226.57 per square meter to repair the damage, he added.
While most visitors to Brugge, called Bruges to the locals, come from within Belgium, the city saw 3.82 million tourists coming from outside the country in 2023, according to stats from the city’s Visit Bruges initiative.
Mr. Demon noted such problems throughout Europe.
“It is a Bruges trend of the last two years that is also playing out in other historical cities: In Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam, things disappear from the public domain such as street signs, but also paving stones,” Mr. Demon told the Belgian newspaper De Standaard.
He added, “We simply ask for respect. Anyone who walks through Bruges steps over centuries of history. Leave those cobblestones where they belong.”
