Travellers, pilgrims and itinerary merchants all needed a place to sleep at night. They could stay at an inn, or sleep in a farmer’s barn, the former providing beer too! In the Geraardsbergen Manuscript we learn about an inn called ‘In the French shield’ in Geraardsbergen, once owned by Guillebert the Mets.
Inns and taverns were some of the most important social meeting places in the Middle Ages. The pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, for instance, meet in the ‘Tabard’ in Southwark before they set out on their pilgrimage.
For more information on inns and taverns, click here.
Go back to:
- The Geraardsbergen Manuscript entrance room
- A pilgrim as a tourist (about Text 69 in the Geraardsbergen Manuscript)
- Inn-owner Guillebert de Mets