FROM the 100-meter-high clock tower in the market square, the time rings out over Bruges every half hour. In days past, the bell used to chime a snippet from Eine kleine Nachtmusik. These days, it is another melody, not Mozart, and maybe not even 18th century. But this city that used to look gloomy now looks like a smart museum, a sign that its complicated history is organized and ordered, like its cobbled streets, canals, and bridges.

Fort