The Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) has the tallest brick tower in the world at 115.5 metres. That alone is worth the visit. But the real reason to come inside is a small white marble sculpture behind bulletproof glass: Michelangelo's Madonna and Child.

The story of how it ended up in Bruges is straightforward. In 1504, a wealthy Bruges cloth merchant named Jan Mouscron bought it directly from Michelangelo's workshop in Rome. At the time, Bruges was a booming trade city with deep Italian connections. Mouscron simply had the money and the contacts.

The sculpture is relatively small — about 128cm tall — but the craftsmanship is unmistakable. The Madonna looks downward, serene. The child sits on her knee with a naturalness that's hard to reconcile with marble. It's one of the few Michelangelo works outside Italy, and the only one that left during his lifetime.

It's been stolen twice — once by the French revolutionaries, once by the Nazis. Both times it came back. During WWII, retreating German soldiers hid it in a mattress in a truck. The Monuments Men recovered it from a salt mine in Austria.

Entry to the sculpture area costs €7. The rest of the church is free. While you're there, look for the tombs of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy — two of the most important figures in Bruges' history, buried in painted stone sarcophagi.