All that's left of this women's hospital in the North Holland town of Haarlem is the portal. Above the portal is this wonderful scene of one of the patient rooms.
Unfortunately I can't really translate the inscription, but I believe that it refers to the founding of the hospital. I also found this site which says that if you read the capital letters as roman numerals, they add up to 1435, the year of the original foundation.
Sorry for cutting off the last numeral in the year that this portal was built. It's a "4", which dates the portal back to 1624. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be in a "women's hospital" back then!
7 comments:
What a wonderful picture of history! Does each cubbyhole on the right contain a patient's bed??
The lettering carved in stone is simply beautiful.
It's not easy to translate but I think you are right about the founding. Nice picture your other pic's are great too.
I love the perspective on the picture. If Dutch people used to sleep in such "cupboards" (they used to sit at the time instead of laying down), I had not imagined they'd used them in a hospital! I never noticed it in Haarlem!.
Simply amazing! The perspective and realism is incredible! I sure hope this is preserved somehow ... perhaps a museum?
That is very very cool. Great find. We've got nothing like this here in Hobart, but I wish that we did.
Thanks very much for sharing this, it's great.
Thanks, all, for commenting. I do think they are patient beds, and made to sleep sitting up like Lezard mentioned. This portal is outside on a street, the only remaining portion of the old building.
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