The Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuis is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands.
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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 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 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 at a much more prestigious location on the Spaarne 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.
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 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 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.
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. 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, 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
| Dutch Rijksmonument 19401 |
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![[2]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Hofjes_in_Haarlem.GIF){kind=link}