St. Donatian's Cathedral stood on the Burg square in Bruges, across from the city hall, and it was the largest church in the city. Arnulf I, Count of Flanders, built it around 950 to house the relics of Saint Donatian, which monks from Torhout had brought to Bruges around 870. It was Romanesque, with an octagonal main building, a tower and a sixteen-sided ambulatory.
Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, was assassinated there on March 2, 1127. Jan van Eyck was buried in the church in 1441, and Canon Joris van der Paele commissioned van Eyck's altarpiece for it in 1436. The church became a cathedral when the first Bishop of Bruges was installed in 1562.
In 1799, after the dissolution of the Diocese of Bruges, the occupying forces of the French First Republic destroyed it. A hotel now occupies the site, and the foundations, uncovered in 1955, are visible in its cellars.
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