The white wise lady of Bruges

From the moment dusk falls until around midnight, the White Lady wanders around the Minnewater. Many have already seen it, few dare to talk about it.

Older people from Bruges still remember that she was a Scottish lady married to a French officer. But one day her husband suddenly disappeared. It was whispered that she had first deceived and bewitched him and then poisoned him. They were just rumors, but you know how it goes... the more there were whispers, the more the rumor was believed to be true. No one knew how the lady ended up in Bruges. She had little contact with the townspeople.

After the death of her husband, she led a retired life in the Bruges Begijnhof. Only occasionally, after mass, did she exchange a few words with the other women who lived there. Sometimes she looked impatiently through the curtains, as if she were expecting someone else, but she never had a visitor. She often went for walks alone in the city. She was sometimes seen under the trees on the Dijver, but her favorite spot was the banks of the Minnewater and the Netelbos. That is the current Minnewaterpark. In winter she always wore a long pale white cloak, in summer often a long white dress, and she always had a white parasol in her hand. She was called “the white lady”.

One day she disappeared. It had taken days to realize she was gone. An investigation was launched but none was learned. The house she rented was clean and in order. Portraits of her French officer were everywhere. There was an open inkwell on the table. There was a note next to it. A kind of farewell message: “I am going to look for my dear druid. Farewell!"

The mystery of her disappearance was never solved. Even the Minnewater was drained in vain. But when it is dark, her shadow is spotted here and there in the Minnewater Park and on the Minnewater. Sometimes she stands on the bridge over the Minnewater, or she suddenly appears - dressed entirely in white - behind a bush or a tall tree. She then waves shyly and asks pleadingly: “Oh dear Druid, come with me.”