The Hofje van Willem Heythuijsen is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands. It was founded in 1650 by the testament of Willem van Heythuijsen (sometimes spelled Heythuysen) on the site of his summer residence outside the city walls of Haarlem on land that was considered Heemstede property until it was annexed in 1927. It is one of the few hofjes of Haarlem to be built outside the city walls. It has a 'T' shape and has a small open courtyard and a garden still intact.
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Willem Heythuijsen was born in Weert, a small city in Dutch Limburg that borders the town of Heythuysen. He was a successful cloth merchant of Haarlem who lived on the Oude Gracht (now called Gedempte Oude Gracht). Like many other merchants of Haarlem, he owned a summer house with a garden facing the Spaarne river, outside the city walls. adjacent to the Haarlemmerhout park. He was known as an easygoing bachelor who enjoyed a joke. The keystone above the door of his home hangs behind the Frans Hals Museum today and shows the legend of The Ray-stabbers of Weert, which tells of a load of fish from Zandvoort brought to Weert. One of the fish fell off the cart, and it was a white stingray that a man found and claimed it was a ghost. It was brought to the city hall of Weert where the guard was called out to stab it. This caused quite a commotion before the fish-seller could reassure the people that it was just a fish. The legend probably served to assure people of Haarlem that fish from the sea could be shipped as far as Weert without spoiling, but it is possible also that it is a play on words, since rog is the same word in Dutch for rye bread and stingray.
Frans Hals painted him several times, and one of these portraits hung in this hofje for centuries. It was sold by the hofje regents in 1869 by public auction in Paris and was acquired the following year by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. Recently, it was determined that this picture was actually a copy made circa 1650 by the artist himself of his original, which he had executed in the mid-1630's. This latter painting appeared at auction in 2008 and was sold for 9 million euros.
In 1636 Willem van Heythuijsen had his will and testament drawn up with the plans for this hofje in the event that he and his sister would die without issue. All of the information we have today about Willem van Heythuijsen is from this will and the acts drawn up by his executors Thieleman Rosterman and Marten van Sittart. One of these executors also had his portrait painted by Frans Hals. Willem van Heythuijsen became wealthy in the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. His parents were probably wealthy cloth merchants in Weert, which was at that time well known for its cloth.
Willem van Heythuijsen was buried in the Sint-Bavokerk in the center of Haarlem, a practice that resulted in the term stinking rich, until laws forbade burials inside churches for hygienic reasons. After his sister died, his two houses on the Oude gracht were sold, as was his summer home on the Spaarne. The summer home "Middelhout" was sold to Hendrik van Vladeracken, brother-in-law to Rosterman. Their daughter Susanna became a regent of the hofje and lived to be 90. Thanks to her legacy, the hofje underwent repairs and a painting was made to honor her that is now in the posseion of the Frans Hals Museum. Today Middelhout is called Sparenhout and is an old age home.
The proceeds of the van Heythuijsen estate were used to convert the orchard and the gardener's houses of Middelhout into a hofje with room for twelve pensioners, and enough money was left over to make donations to the Oudemannenhuis (currently the location of the Frans Hals Museum), the Diaconie (currently the location of the Police station), and to the city of Weert for founding a poor house there as well. To provide income for the hofje, more land was purchased just North of this hofje outside the city walls in an area called Rozenprieel, which generated income from rents.
From his clothing in the paintings and his donations, we can conclude that Willem van Heythuijsen was Catholic, in a time when the ruling majority in Haarlem was Protestant. He became a member of the Dutch Reformed church in 1613 with a note of proof from Cologne.
Unlike many other hofjes, this hofje accommodated both male and female inhabitants, until it switched to only female inhabitants in the 18th century. The hofje was built on the border with Heemstede, and the regent's room was South of the rest of the complex on Heemstede land. For centuries a stone border marker was situated in front of the entrance. In 1927 Haarlem annexed a large portion of Heemstede and the marker was removed. It is now in the garden of the Frans Hals Museum.
Address: Kleine Houtweg 135
| Dutch Rijksmonument 19446 |
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