Brugge is an out­stand­ing exam­ple of a medieval his­toric set­tle­ment, which has main­tained its his­toric fab­ric as this has evolved over the cen­turies, and where orig­i­nal Goth­ic con­struc­tions form part of the town‘s iden­ti­ty. As one of the com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tals of Europe, Brugge devel­oped cul­tur­al links to dif­fer­ent parts of the world. It is close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the school of Flem­ish Prim­i­tive paint­ing.