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.

Management

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. The hofjes are managed by five board members called regents. Any community structure in Haarlem, be it a guild or a hofje, had a group of five regents or regentesses. Whenever there was a change of board members, a commemorative painting would be made. In paintings by Frans Hals' the regents of the Poor men's almshouse and the regents of the St. Elisabeth Gasthuys can be seen. Many guilds kept hofjes for their own aging members. When the guilds were disbanded under the French occupation in 1794, the guild regents kept their role as hofje regents.

Wealth

It was the duty of the regents to care for the books and the behavior of the members. Many hofjes were quite wealthy, due to the high turnover of its members, who had to donate all of their possessions to the hofje in order to be accepted for living there. Other sources of income were lotteries, that were organized to build new premises or restore old ones. The living conditions between the various hofjes varied substantially, with each religious order competing to keep the most luxurious one. Today most of the surviving hofjes receive their income from housing rents.

Origins

When talking of hofjes, most people refer to the name given to the buildings themselves, but the foundations they are based on may have moved premises several times since the original foundation date, and even changed their names. Hofjes in Haarlem were primarily the result of generous bequests by wealthy men or women in their own name, rather than from any group religious or municipal effort. Most hofjes were meant for elderly women, because there were far more poor aged women in the streets than poor aged men. However, after the iconoclasm of the Reformation in Haarlem in 1566, the Catholics (and their hofjes) were forced underground, and many became quite poor. When the 'Oudemannenhuis' opened in 1609, many of the poor men who were accepted were Catholics.

list of Haarlem hofjes (by year of foundation)

* 1395: Hofje van Bakenes(or "Bakenesserkamer")
* 1440: Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuys (Merger of "Onse Lieve Vrouwegasthuis", or "St. Barbaragasthuis" , and " Sint Antoniegasthuis")
* 1472: Brouwershofje (or "Sint Maartensgastguis")
* 1489: Hofje van Loo (or "St. Elisabeth's Gasthuis")
* 1607: Frans Loenenhofje
* 1609: Frans Hals Museum (or "Oudemannenhuis")
* 1609 & 1684: Hofje Codde en Van Beresteijn
* 1610: Bruiningshofje
* 1614: Lutherse Hofje
* 1616: Hofje In den Groenen Tuin
* 1616: Hofje van Guurtje de Waal
* 1640: Zuiderhofje
* 1650: Hofje van Willem Heythuijsen
* 1662: Wijnbergshofje
* 1730: Hofje van Staats
* 1752: Teylers Hofje (or 1787, see article)
* 1760: Hofje van Noblet
* 1768: Hofje van Oorschot
* 1773: Remonstrants Hofje

External links

* [http://www.haarlemshuffle.com/tourism/topic.php?id=24 Haarlem Shuffle - Haarlem's Secret Gardens]

References

* Haarlemse Hofjes, Dr. Gerda H. Kurtz, Schuyt & Co. Haarlem 1972