Bruges, in what is now Belgium, was one of the first places in northern Europe where diamonds were polished as a regular trade. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was a great international port, home to merchants from Italy, Germany, Spain and England, and to a wealthy court that bought jewels. Diamond workers there polished Indian rough into point cuts and early table cuts. When the city's link to the sea silted up, trade and skilled workers moved to Antwerp, which became the center of the European diamond business.
A medieval trading city
From the 13th century Bruges was one of the busiest commercial centers in Europe. Ships reached the city through an inlet called the Zwin, and the outport of Damme and later Sluis handled cargo. Italian banking houses kept branches there, the German Hanseatic League ran a major trading post, and merchants from across the continent dealt in wool, cloth, spices and luxury goods.
The city is often said to have hosted one of the earliest formal exchanges. Merchants met in a square in front of a house owned by the Van der Beurse family, and the name is one proposed origin of the word "bourse" for a market. That story is widely repeated, though historians note that trading houses in other cities used similar arrangements.
Diamonds in the Burgundian age
In the late 14th century the Low Countries came under the Dukes of Burgundy, whose court spent lavishly on jewels, plate and fine clothing. Bruges was one of its main residences. That demand, combined with the city's role as a hub for goods from the Mediterranean and beyond, made it a natural place for diamond polishing.
Almost all diamonds at this time came from India, from alluvial deposits later grouped under the name of the Golconda region. They reached Europe through long overland and sea routes, often via Venice, and then traveled north to Flanders and Paris.
What early polishers did
Medieval diamond workers did not cut stones into many facets. Diamond is the hardest natural material on the Mohs scale, so the only way to shape it is with diamond itself. Early polishers rubbed stones against each other or used diamond powder to smooth and brighten the natural faces of an octahedral crystal.
The result was the point cut, which kept the eight-sided crystal shape and simply polished its faces. A later step was the table cut, made by grinding off the top point of the octahedron to make a flat face, and often a smaller face at the bottom. These styles are covered in more depth on the page about the history of faceted gems and in diamond cutting history.
Records from Bruges show diamond polishers working within the city's guild system during the 15th century. The scale was small, because only a modest flow of rough reached Europe at the time.
The van Berquem story
Belgian tradition names Lodewyk (Louis) van Berquem of Bruges as the man who invented diamond polishing on a spinning wheel charged with diamond dust and oil, said to be around the 1470s. The story adds that he cut diamonds for Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
Historians treat this as legend. It first appears in print in the 17th century, written by a man who claimed to be his descendant, and diamond polishing with diamond dust was known before van Berquem's supposed lifetime. Still, the story does reflect something real: Flemish workshops in this period helped move the trade toward polishing wheels and more regular facet patterns. The page on Antwerp as a gem cutting center covers how the legend became part of that city's identity.
Why the trade moved to Antwerp
The Zwin inlet that linked Bruges to the North Sea gradually filled with sediment. Through the 15th century, larger ships found it harder to reach the city's harbors, and dredging could not keep up. At the same time, political trouble damaged the city. Bruges rebelled against Maximilian of Austria in the 1480s, and in response he ordered foreign merchants to leave for Antwerp.
Antwerp sat on the deep Scheldt river and could take large ships. It also hosted big annual fairs that drew merchants from across Europe. As the Italian, Portuguese and German traders moved their offices there, diamond polishers and goldsmiths followed. By the early 1500s Antwerp had taken over the role that Bruges once held, and the arrival of Portuguese sea trade with India after 1498 made it the leading diamond market in Europe.
The pattern repeated later, when war pushed much of Antwerp's trade north to Amsterdam after 1585.
Bruges today
Bruges declined into a quiet provincial town for several centuries, which helped preserve its medieval center. Today that center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist destination, and the city's early role in diamond polishing is part of the story told to visitors.
For the broader story of how cutting moved between cities, see the overview of great gem cutting centers. Diamonds polished in medieval and Renaissance styles appear in surviving pieces covered on the Middle Ages jewelry page.
Frequently asked questions
Was Bruges the first place diamonds were cut?
No. Diamonds were polished in India long before they were worked in Europe. Bruges was one of the earliest European centers, along with Venice and Paris, where diamond polishing became an organized trade.
What kind of diamonds did Bruges polishers make?
Mostly point cuts, which polished the natural octahedral crystal faces, and early table cuts, which ground the top point flat. Fully faceted brilliant cuts did not appear until much later.
Why did Bruges lose its diamond trade?
The inlet linking the city to the sea silted up during the 15th century, and political conflict with Maximilian of Austria drove foreign merchants to Antwerp. The diamond trade moved with them.