The Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuis is a hofje

Hofje

A hofje is a Dutch word for a courtyard with almshouses around it. They have existed since the Middle Ages.A hofje provided housing for elderly people . They were privately funded, and served as a form of social security...

 in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Foundation

This hofje is run by a foundation called 'Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuis', which was founded in 1440 as a guest house for pilgrims seeking shelter. This foundation was originally located nearby on the east side of the Spaarne on the Hagestraat or 'High' road where the most pilgrims arrived who came to Haarlem to revere the relics in the Sint-Bavokerk

Sint-Bavokerk

The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square in the Dutch city of Haarlem...

 there. The foundation moved to its present location in 1787. Pilgrim traffic by that time was reduced due to the number of European wars, but the main reason for moving was that the former gateway to the city on the Hagestraat was no longer used. Most traffic to the city arrived by trekschuit

Trekschuit

Trekschuit, literal translation 'tugboat', is an old style of horse-drawn boat specific to the Netherlands where it was used for centuries as a means of passenger traffic between cities along trekvaarten, or tow-canals.-History:...

 and the new location was next to a boat landing. The foundation bought the current location from the Teyler's Society, which itself had moved to new premises

Teylers Hofje

The Teylershofje is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands with 24 houses.-History of the foundation:The current hofje was built in 1787 from the legacy of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, just like the Teylers Museum close to it. Pieter Teyler van der Hulst originally founded a hofje when his wife died in...

 at a much more prestigious location on the Spaarne

Spaarne

The Spaarne is a river, in North Holland, Netherlands. This partially canalized river connects the Ringvaart to a side branch of the North Sea Canal. It runs through Haarlem, Heemstede, and Spaarndam....

 river.

The Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuis foundation is itself a merger of two foundations, one for women (the O.L. Vrouwegasthuys op Bakenes, founded on St. Valentine's Day in 1440 and under the management of the church called Bakenesserkerk) and one for both women and men (the St. Anthoniegasthuys, founded on July 1 in the same year by Jan Claes Dierdtssen). These Gasthuysen operated independently until after the Protestant Reformation, when all church property reverted to the Haarlem city council in 1581. They still operated independently of each other until they were finally merged in 1726 prior to the move to these premises.

Buildings

The central building dates from 1648, when it was called the Bogaert hofje. The pensioner's "rooms" or camers, were along the edge of the garden and built of wood, and the regents and the sick pensioners were housed in the main house. At that time the entrance was not on the Klein Heiligland because there were camers there. The entrance was on the south side on the Franekersteeg, an alley way that has since disappeared from the map.

The hofje went to Coymans, then Kolder, until being sold to silk merchant Pieter Teyler van der Hulst

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million florins to the pursuit of religion, arts and science in his hometown, that led to the formation of Teyler's Museum. This was not the value of his entire estate...

 in 1729, who added the stone side wings for pensioners in 1730 and created the entrance on the Klein Heiligland. Pieter Teyler van der Hulst sponsored this Mennonite

Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

 hofje for the community known as The Block, and purchased it from the descendents of Jan Kolder, who like himself had also been a mennonite silk merchant. Hofjes traded hands often in those days, being dependent on wealthy donors for income. It was the Teyler's Society who later sold the complex to the foundation Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuis.

Original donor

Pieter Joosten Bogaert, a Haarlem soapmaker, founded this hofje in the back garden of his large house on the Grote Houtstraat, during the golden age for Haarlem, the period after the Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

. The hofje's main house, (not to be confused with Bogaert's house which has since been lost to shoppingstreet storefronts) was purchased in 1655 by the widow Dorothea Berck, who bought it to memorialize her husband, Josephus Coymans. It is assumed that the Bogaert donor built the original hofje as part of a larger social works plan, with farming lands along the two streets nearby - Lange and Korte Bogaardstraat. Since those streets end near the Hofje van Loo

Hofje van Loo

The Hofje van Loo is a hofje on the Barrevoetstraat 7 in Haarlem, Netherlands.It was founded in 1489 by Haarlem mayor Symon Pieterszoon van Loo and his wife Godelt Willemsdochter, on the Grebbesteeg 'purely to honor and rest the souls of their parents and themselves' by funding 13 rooms with...

, and that was itself an add-on to the St. Elisabeth Gasthuys, it is assumed that Bogaert had not only founded the hofje, but also provided lands for orchards and animal use for the city hospital and pensioners in his hofje, just as the Hofje van Loo founders had done.

Address: Klein Heiligland

External links

• Notation in the registers of the Haarlem Mennonite community for Pieter Joosten Bogaert for a donation to the poor on May 24, 1634 http://www.vdgh.org/archief/legaten_blok.htm