Within the so-caled Adornesdomein estate is one of Bruges’ oddest churches, the 15th-century Jeruzalemkerk, built by the Adornes family. Supposedly based on Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it’s a macabre monument with a gruesome altarpiece covered in skull motifs and an effigy of Christ’s corpse tucked away in the rear mini-chapel. The entry price includes admission to a small museum occupying several of the estate's pretty almshouses.
The estate, dating from 1429, remains in the ownership of the Adornes family. The Count and Countess Maximilien de Limburg Stirum are the seventeenth generation of descendants of Anselm Adornes, whose heart is enshrined in a black-marble tomb in the church – presumably the only remains that were able to be returned to Bruges after he was murdered in Scotland in 1483.
