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An easy drive from Dover makes Bruges ever-popular with the English. Here Charles II set up his court during Cromwell's Commonwealth Republic in England. Before that, Edward IV and Richard III lived here in exile. Duke of Burgundy had his palace here in Bruges from which he ruled the larger part of Europe, today credited by some with laying the foundation of a United Europe, and the hotel has been created from the remnants of the Palace of the Duke, the Prisenhof, dating back to 1429
Historic it may be, but the Palace has been magnificently converted and architecturally it is now a gem, flooded with light and with intelligently created spaces, most awkward of which is the Reception. On arrival your car is whisked away to be placed in an underground car park, the existence of which you will only suspect if you have a room looking out onto the garden when thoughtful study will enable you to identify the ramp into it. To find an hotel with an underground car park in Bruges is remarkable - indeed driving to any hotel in Bruges without great navigation skills or good satnav through the narrow, primarily pedestrian, streets of this 'Venice of the North' is a challenge in itself.
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Reception desk is dominated by the staircase and its chandelier - click the image to look up at the chandelier
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"architecturally it is now a gem, flooded with light and with intelligently created spaces"
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Arriving at the Dukes' Palace is in keeping with the history as a palace. The approach to the building is somewhat awe-inspiring, and the entrance has been neatly located and designed to both allow for the tight courtyard to work for cars and to allow the areas inside the building to flow well for the guests and staff. The hotel both dominates and respects the urban square it opens off, and is discreetly set back from the main street behind other houses. A turret housing a staircase on the left and the differing facades show its heritance as a series of buildings. Reception, tucked in a corner inside the entrance, is in the base of the balancing staircase to the turret across the forecourt.
I make Reception sound cramped but it isn't. It is quite stylish, but not well lit, despite the spectacular chandelier hanging above the desk. Somehow it just lacks sufficient sense of place, failing to match up to the grandeur of the architecture.
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The entrance is tucked in a corner of the courtyard - click to see the rest of the facade
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Kempinski Dukes Palace
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