As a traveller, you might sometimes get in the mood to see something different. Here's one for you: Almshouses. Collections of small apartments (usually 12 or 13 in number) around a central courtyard featuring a well-tended garden, often with a single gateway to the outside world, they provided donated living space for the elderly poor starting in the 1600s. They're now highly sought-after refuges of peace and calm.
Almshouses - just how did they come about?
Almshouses were meant to be an argument for heavenly inclusion for the rich who built them, a way for them to get their camels through the eye of a needle, so to speak (or, as one racy Belgian tour guide told me, "to get poll position in the race to heaven"). When you come to think of it, many of the monuments that attract tourists in Europe come from these medieval Christian values favoring income redistribution; the same heavenly strategy used when the rich donated the building of churches, monuments and hostels along the ancient, tourist-clogged pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela.While the money for almshouses came from the urban well-to-do, the Almshouses themselves were often run by charitable foundations, which often bound the residents with numerous conditions and regulations. Still, having a peaceful place to stay and living off free bread, meat, beer, and clothing was usually more than enough to make up for any regulatory inconvenience.
The Skinny on Visiting Almshouses
Decorated gateway to an almshouse in Haarlem
James Martin
You'll recognize almshouses by the usually intricate inscriptions and carvings above the gateway. See the pictures for some typical ones.
Most almshouses have been restored in recent times, and the folks now living in them value their peace and quiet. Still, you are free to enter and look at the gardens and entryways, as long as you don't break the peace.
Where to Visit Almshouses
While you'll find almshouses in many towns in the Netherlands and Belgium like Haarlem and Brugge, the city of Leiden has a nicely planned self-guided walking tour of the 35 almshouse groups that exist today in the city. The walk is easily done (you can take a long or short tour). Snag the publication "Along Leiden's Almshouses Walking Tour" from the Tourist Office (go straight out of the train station on Steen Stradt; it's on the right) for a couple Euros and follow along. The book gives a good description of the history of each almshouse in Dutch and English. At the end of the booklet is information on visiting other, related historical places.Other Leiden Attractions
A Courtyard in a Leiden Alsmhouse
James Martin
