Welcome to the website of the Royal Guild of Saint-Sebastian in the City of Bruges. Our Guild is the oldest association of militia and has been continuously active since the Middle Ages. It was founded in Bruges around 1375, housed from 1573 in the current building in the Carmersstraat, called the Lombaertheester.

Our objectives and activities can be summarized by three topics:

• practicing the ancient sport of archery with the longbow. A shooting session is organized weekly on a Monday evening.
• promoting friendship among members. There are currently about 120 members.
• to preserve and study our rich and historically important heritage.

We honour Guild traditions. We ‘live with the past but not in the past’ and try to ensure a thriving future for our Guild.

This website offers extensive information about our stated objectives and activities. You will find sections about our Guild history, about the buildings, the works of art, our archive and also about the history and different disciplines of archery.

We are very proud of our archive. Our oldest manuscript dates from 1416, so that in 2016 we could rightly celebrate the ‘600 years’ of our archive. For that occasion, we organized an exhibition and published a scientifically referenced book about the guild. The archive has already been digitalized to a large extent. The preservation of the content is thereby ensured and accessibility for researchers increased.

Finally, you will also find a concise bibliography for those who want to read and know more, some ‘links’ on related topics and organizations and our contact details if you want to visit the Guild not only virtually, but also in real life.

In addition to the texts, numerous images tell a visual story. It is a story of many facts, but also of people who have given their own face to our Guild through their contribution.

Thank you for your interest. I wish you good viewing and reading pleasure. I also sincerely thank the creators of this website.

Patrick Flamey, Captain-General