Bruges and other historic cities struggle with one irritating problem

The charming Bruges sounds the alarm. It is indeed faced with a problem that plagues other historic landmarks around the world.

The city of Bruges is seeing an increasing number of its cobblestones vanish. Who is behind this theft? Tourists wanting to take an unusual souvenir home!

"We're now talking about 50 to 70 cobblestones per month", says Alderman Franky Demon (CD&V) in a video on social media in which he asks tourists for more respect.

Although the streets and squares of the historic city centre are littered with cobblestones, the city has to keep supplying them because they are constantly being stolen, and that is obviously not the intention.

"At iconic locations such as Minnewater, the Fish Market, the Market Square and the Gruuthuse Museum, an estimated fifty to seventy cobblestones disappear every month. And that figure could be even higher,” says Franky Demon, Bruges' Alderman for Public Domain, to Het Nieuwsblad and on social media. “Especially during busy tourist periods like spring and summer, this phenomenon noticeably increases. And, surprisingly, on one location the thief even filled the hole with a violet.”

And it is not a standalone phenomenon. Other tourist cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Venice and Barcelona also face tourists stealing street furniture, traffic signs or cobbles.

(SR - Source: Het Nieuwsblad - Illustration: ©Unsplash)