In Bruges: A Hitman's Tour of Bruges

Ken and Ray arrive just before Christmas and check into a small family hotel run by Marie, who is heavily pregnant. It is the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, a half-timbered boutique hotel at Wollestraat 41–47 — and, McDonagh said, the same hotel he had stayed in on his first visit, before he had any idea of writing a film about Bruges. The holidays were over by the time filming began in February 2007, so the city let the crew put the Christmas trees and lights back up.

Visitor guidance: The hotel stands a minute's walk from both the Markt and the canal view at Rozenhoedkaai.

Ken insists on climbing the Belfry for the view; Ray refuses — "I can see that from down here." The tower has risen over the Markt since about 1240, leans 87 centimetres to the east, and its 366 narrow steps lead to the top, 83 metres up. At the climax the Belfry becomes the scene of the final showdown between Ken and Harry, and the fall from its top lands on the real square below. The cramped summit itself was too small for the crew: that confrontation was filmed on a studio mock-up.

Visitor guidance: The climb to the top is open to the public for an entry fee.

Ken's sightseeing takes him to see Bruges' famous relic, a phial said to contain drops of Christ's blood, kept in the Basilica of the Holy Blood on the Burg square. According to the Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, the crew filmed the scene not in the basilica but in the Jerusalem Church in the quieter Sint-Anna quarter. It was built in the 15th century by the Adornes family, merchants of Genoese origin, reportedly on the plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and still belongs to a family foundation.

In the Groeninge Museum, Ray, still haunted by what happened in London, stands transfixed before Hieronymus Bosch's Last Judgment, with its sinners tormented by demons. Standing before it, the two hitmen talk about purgatory and who deserves hell — a quiet scene that sets up everything that follows. The museum let the crew film among its real collection, which spans six centuries of Flemish and Belgian painting, from Jan van Eyck to Marcel Broodthaers. The Bosch triptych is still part of it.

Visitor guidance: The Groeninge Museum is at Dijver 12; admission is charged.

After the museum, Ken and Ray sit beneath the statue of the painter Jan van Eyck on the small square named after him and try, awkwardly, to square their line of work with what they have just seen. Van Eyck worked in Bruges in the 15th century, and his paintings hang in the Groeninge collection they have just left. The square lies at the end of the Spiegelrei canal in the northern part of the centre, a few minutes' walk from the Markt.

Harry finally calls with Ken's real orders: kill Ray. Ken takes a gun from Harry's local contact and follows Ray to a park, watching from an ornamental pavilion. But Ray, crushed by guilt, is about to turn his own gun on himself, and Ken steps in instead. He tells Ray the truth, gives him money and puts him on a train out of Bruges. The scene was filmed in Koningin Astridpark (Queen Astrid Park), a small park with a children's playground east of the centre.

Furious at Ken's disobedience, Harry comes to Bruges himself and strides across the bridge at the Minnewater, the "Lake of Love". The long lake at the southern edge of the centre is not natural: it probably formed in the 13th century as a reservoir behind the sluices, and until 1784 it was the mooring place of the barge to Ghent. Today it is surrounded by a park, and for most visitors arriving on foot from the railway station it is the first view of the old town.

Visitor guidance: The Minnewater park and bridge are open to walk at any time.

Wounded and chased through the old fish market, Ray stumbles into the night shoot of the film he and Ken came across earlier, where the costumed actors look like figures out of the Bosch painting. Harry catches up and opens fire, and the story ends in the confusion. The film-within-a-film set was built beside the Gruuthuse, the mansion of a wealthy medieval family on Gruuthusestraat, under the tower of the Church of Our Lady. The mansion is now the Gruuthusemuseum.

Visitor guidance: The Gruuthusemuseum is at Dijver 17, next to the Groeninge Museum.