Beguinage is a settlement of single beguines within a city in Flanders and the Netherlands, an architectural ensemble consisting of dwellings with cells and a chapel around a courtyard used as a vegetable garden or planted with flowers. The Beginka led an almost monastic lifestyle, but they did not take a vow of celibacy or donate their property to the community. They were engaged in handicrafts, educated orphans, cared for the sick and elderly.
The beguinages are now inhabited by the elderly, students and artists. However, many have been turned into museum complexes, only some have managed to preserve monastic life.
In Bruges, the beguinage is one of the city's main attractions. It is located on the shores of Lake Minnewater. Passing over a bridge through a gate with the inscription: '1776', you follow a paved path planted with elms into an irregularly shaped courtyard, around which are built the low dwellings of the beguinages. On the north side stands the church of St Elizabeth, and on the east side is the house of the prioress adjoining the chapel, the simplicity of which epitomises the charitable and religious life of Flanders.
