Hofjes in Haarlem

Haarlem is one of the cities in the Netherlands that has a number of hofjes. Some of them are even still in use with boards of regents. Many of these are members of the Stichting Haarlemse Hofjes (Foundation Hofjes of Haarlem). The word 'hofje' just means small garden, because the hofjes are generally small houses grouped around a community kitchen garden with a water pump. Often they were attached to a larger field for bleaching linen or growing orchards, but today those fields have been long used for city expansion and only the central gardens can still be seen.

What we would call 'social work' today was called charity work in earlier centuries. Hofjes in Haarlem are the remnants of charity work that were founded by defunct community structures that were divided by religious order and social class, but all more or less guided by the then prevailing need to perform the Christian Seven Works of Mercy; feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the dead, shelter the traveler, comfort the sick, and free the imprisoned. Committing any of these acts would gain the giver entrance through the pearly gates of Heaven. This is what prompted so many wealthy Haarlem citizens to found Hofjes in their name on their death.

In Haarlem the city council became responsible for acts of mercy on a grand scale when the leper colony was founded outside the city walls in the town of Schoten in 1393. For centuries from all over Holland, lepers had to come to Haarlem to get an attestatie or proof of leprosy, as a legal permit to beg. Similarly, the Haarlem Beul, or city executioner, "freed" prisoners all over the country from Amsterdam to Ghent by chopping their heads off. This led to the Dutch saying zo brutaal als de beul van Haarlem, meaning "as brutal as the Haarlem executioner". This morbid practise was only stopped in the beginning of the 17th century. The Haarlem leper colony, Het Dolhuys, still exists and is currently a museum.

In 1347, the first mention of a 'Gasthuys' is made in Haarlem archives. After the leper colony was founded (in the name of Saint Lazarus), a new gasthuys, in the name of Saint Elisabeth, was built on the Verwulft where the sick were treated that did not need quarantine outside the city walls. This hospital existed and grew until the fire that burned it down. Hofje van Loo was an add-on that survived. The Elisabeth Gasthuys (later called EG) was rebuilt on the location of a former monastery (cellenbroers or minnebroers) in the Groot Heiligland (across the street from the Frans Hals Museum today) where it operated from 1581 to 1971. Originally a church institution, it was now run by Haarlem council members, due to the Protestant Reformation. Since the German occupation of World War II, this hospital is no longer run by the Haarlem council, but still exists and is called the Kennemer Gasthuis today. The former buildings in the Groot Heiligland house a community center and have been converted to homes.

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Wikipedia