Belgium: Bruges, the Canals

Bruges, nicknamed the "Venice of the North" for its network of medieval canals winding through the city, owes the near-intact preservation of its historic centre to an abrupt economic decline at the end of the 15th century, when the progressive silting up of the Zwin river cut the city off from its direct access to the sea and ended its commercial golden age. This unexpected economic freeze, which could have proven catastrophic, paradoxically allowed Bruges to escape the successive waves of demolition and urban reconstruction that transformed most other major European cities, preserving to this day an urban plan and Flemish Gothic architecture virtually intact since the 13th century.