Het Dolhuys
Encyclopedia
Het Dolhuys is a national museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 for psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 in Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, the Netherlands. The museum was founded in 2005 in the newly renovated former old age home known as Schoterburcht, located just across the Schotersingel from the Staten Bolwerk park. The whole complex is much older than that however, having been a hospital for centuries known as the Leproos-, Pest- en Dolhuys. The old regent's room with handpainted wallpaper done by Jan Augustini
Jan Augustini
Jan Augustini , was an 18th century painter from the Northern Netherlands.-Biography:According to the RKD he was a landscape painter who made large wall decorations, many of which are still installed in the buildings for which they were designed. He was a pupil of Philip van Dijk in the Hague...

 (Dutch, 1725–1773) in 1756, has recently been restored.

Museum of Psychiatry

The collection is based on the artifacts of seven psychiatric hospitals; GGZ Noord-HollandNoord, Mentrum, De Meren, Buitenamstel, GGZ Dijk en Duin, De Geestgronden, and Rivierduinen. It is an interactive museum. The visitor is encouraged to think about the contrasts between sanity and insanity, between visitors and inmates, and between participants and observers. On display are the various personal effects of famous inmates of psychiatric hospitals, as well as old treatment methods and tools used by the hospitals themselves.

History of the complex Het Dolhuys

Like many other Dutch cities, Haarlem had a hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...

 situated outside the city walls for lepers, plague victims, and other sufferers considered by the city council to have infectious diseases. The Dolhuys was situated in the former town of Schoten
Schoten
Schoten is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Schoten proper. On January 1, 2006 Schoten had a total population of 33,160. The total area is which gives a population density of 1,122 inhabitants per km². Schoten abuts the...

 (annexed by Haarlem in 1927). What made this one so unusual was the privilege granted to Haarlem in 1413 to test lepers from all over the Netherlands and grant them a vuilbrief, or document certifying their status as leper. With this paper, the leper was legally allowed to beg. This privilege meant a guaranteed form of income for this institution, since it also meant a steady stream of visitors and accompanying traffic.

One of the oldest keystones in the front of the complex shows the year 1564. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Dolhuys regents became quite wealthy, because many lepers coming for their vuilbrief decided to stay there, and doing so meant that all of their possessions reverted to the Dolhuys on their death. In the painting by Jan de Bray
Jan de Bray
Jan de Bray , was a Dutch Golden Age painter.-Biography:Jan de Bray was born in Haarlem. According to Houbraken he was the most famous pupil of his father, the architect and poet Salomon de Bray. Houbraken called Jan the "pearl in Haarlem's crown"...

 of the regents of the Dolhuys, a boy with head sores is seen collecting his vuilbrief and holding a lazarus-klep or klepper (clapper), a wooden rattle that he can use to call attention and beg with. His young age and the fact that he is unaccompanied means that he is probably an orphan inmate, who will be sent by the regents to collect money in Haarlem for their hospital.

Jan de Bray also painted the regentesses, who took care of the finances and the daily running of the hospital. The names of the regents and regentesses are known from archive information, but which names belong to which faces has been lost.

Willem Janszoon Verwer

Perhaps the most famous regent today of the medieval Dolhuys was Willem Janszoon Verwer, who kept a diary, most notably of his experiences during the siege of Haarlem
Siege of Haarlem
The siege of Haarlem was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. From December 11, 1572 to July 13, 1573 an army of Philip II of Spain laid bloody siege to the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, whose loyalties had begun wavering during the previous summer...

 from 1572-1581. This diary was copied and annotated by Gerdina Hendrika Kurtz
Gerdina Hendrika Kurtz
Gerdina Hendrika Kurtz was a Dutch historian, writer and archivist. She published under the name, G.H. Kurtz.-Early years:Gerda Kurtz was born in Amsterdam, and moved to Haarlem with her family at age seven. She studied at a girl's school there, but her mother died when she was only 13 and she...

 in 1960 and later published in 1973. Verwer was a wealthy member of the Haarlem city council, as was his father. His father was listed in 1577 as one of the 20 richest men of Haarlem. During the siege of Haarlem the Spanish had their headquarters in Huis ter Kleef
Huis ter Kleef
The ruins of the Huis ter Kleef castle are located in the city gardens of Haarlem.-History:The castle is located about halfway between the Castle Brederode and the Haarlem City Hall, which were built respectively in the second half of the 13th century and 1370, and probably dates from that period,...

. Executions by hanging were carried out close to the Dolhuys, because soldiers were stationed there, and Verwer was a witness. He was Roman Catholic and his diary is written from this perspective. He later used his diary in court proceedings in Haarlem after the siege.

Order of Sint Lazarus

The Dolhuys was a charitable institution for the elderly, orphans, lepers, and other poor or sick people who could not be helped by the Sint Elisabeth's Gasthuis within the city walls of Haarlem. Originally the complex was a monastery in the Order of Saint Lazarus
Order of Saint Lazarus
This article concerns the order of knighthood named after Saint Lazarus. For other uses of the name Lazarus, see Lazarus .The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is an order of chivalry which originated in a leper hospital founded by the Knights Hospitaller in 1098 by the...

. The accompanying chapel was dedicated to Saint James. This is the oldest St. James chapel in Haarlem still standing; the oldest St. James chapel (1319) was located at the current location of the St. Jacobsgodshuis in the Hagestraat.

Leproos or Melaats

Leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 was misunderstood and any disease considered fatal and contagious, such as small pox, was grouped under the header lazerij, after the story of Lazarus
Lazarus and Dives
The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a well known parable of Jesus which appears in one of the Four Gospels of the New Testament....

. The sufferer was called a leproos or melaats, and was considered dead for the state, though the person was still alive. Some patients did in fact improve and leave, but many died there. A famous inmate who lived quite a long time was Malle Babbe
Malle Babbe
Malle Babbe is a painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted between 1633 and 1635 and now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. The painting has also been titled as Hille Bobbe or the Witch of Haarlem...

. She was painted by Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

, probably while his son Peter was living there.

History of Psychiatry in the Netherlands

Apart from the history of the building itself, the visitor can see items from surrounding mental institutions through the centuries. The main hall is devoted to an overview of the history of psychiatry treatment in the Netherlands. The museum is the owner of the archives of several former institutions and has a small exhibition hall for rotating shows based on their possessions, and also art from former psychiatry patients.

Adjoining Restaurant

The museum cafe is situated in the old St. James church and has its own entrance around the back of the complex. There is no admission, and it can be hired separately for parties or gatherings. There is also a rear hall that can be used for gatherings. Theatre performances and poetry readings have been given there.

Awards

In 2005 the museum won the Dutch Design Prize in the category ‘Exhibition & Experience Design’. In 2007 the museum received an honorable mention for The European Museum of the Year Award.

Location: Schotersingel 2, Haarlem, just north of the Haarlem railway station.

External links

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