Very typical for the beguinage in Bruges is the water moat in front of the surrounding wall. So you can just enter when you walk over a bridge.
A similarity to the beguinage in Antwerp is that there are some signs which ask the visitors to be quiet. Also like in Antwerp there is often a wall with an additional door in front of the houses. But in difference to Antwerp some houses hadn’t a wall but a hedge in front. Another similarity is that above some of these doors there are statues of Mary and of saints. But while the houses of the beguines in Antwerp are brown, many houses in Bruges are painted white. A difference is also that in Antwerp there was a little park in the middle, while in Bruges there was “just” a big meadow with trees and a church in the middle.
What I liked very much in the beguinage of Bruges is the very small inner courtyard between two houses – because there are interesting information boards:
Tine De Moor said: “The beguinages may have offered women in the low countries safety and security in the case they chose to remain single.” This quote shows that women could feel safe (in the beguinages) although they did’nt marry.
Walter Simons said: “Beguinages indeed proved to be powerful devices to attract young women from the countryside eager to make a living in the city but in need of support and protection, as medieval cities were dangerous places for them.” Also the quote of Walter Simons addresses the safety aspect.
Georges Rodenbach said: “Si vide, si muette, d’un silence contagieux qu’on y marche doucement, qu’on y parle bas, comme dans un domaine où il y a un malade.” (engl.: “So empty, so mute, so contagiously silent that you walk softly and speak softly, as if in a domain where there’s a sick person.”) Interesting is here that Rodenbach also thematised the silence and calm.