Although Brugge was where I first encountered a Begijnhof, it was Mechelen where I started to understand about the importance of the movement. Mechelen has two Begijnhofs, the Klein Begijnhof and, inevitably, the Grote Begijnhof. As with the others I've visited, these are situated on the edge of the old town.
These are "Street Begijnhofs" and in fact the delineation between the Begijnhofs and the surrounding area isn't too clear to an outsider - the town has grown around the houses, which themselves grew into communities from ad hoc collections of huts. They were restoring the Klein Begijnhof (above and right) when we went there first and we were unable to walk through it. Now mostly completed, it conveys something of the peace that must have prevailed when it was in use.
They're still [May 2003] working on the church that serves the Grote Begijnhof, but even now you can feel the peace and quiet, which is impossible to convey in photographs because of the cramped and haphazard nature of the settlements. The Grote Begijnhof (left and below) is bigger than it seems at first sight: the best way to see it is to follow the "Wandeling" that's laid out round the area. The route is clearly signposted with green-on-white markers, and all of hte important buildings are marked with blue and white "historic monuments" signs. I very much enjoyed just wandering around when we first visited, but there's no doubt that we missed a number of particularly striking views: the walk is well-structured and gives a good impression os what life must have been like hundreds of years ago.
The signboard quite rightly descried the Begijnhof as a "challenging urban restoration project", but work on the dwellings of the Grote Begijnhof has come on by leaps and bounds since we first visited, probably in part because of hte UNESCO listing. There's no doubting the importance of the Begijns and other religious movements to Mechelen. St Rombout's dominates the centre of town and if you count up all the buildings you could easily conclude that in the middle ages the place existed solely for Christian worship. Some of the other churches are documented on my pages about Mechelen. Note that as of May 2003, most churches only open after one thirty in the afternoon and are closed on Mondays (Mandaag). The exception is Sint Rombout's, which opens at eight thirty every day except Sunday, when it's open from two.