page_title: Het Dolhuys
section_title: History of the complex Het Dolhuys
hierarchical_section_title: Het Dolhuys / History of the complex Het Dolhuys
caption_attribution_description: English: Northeast corner of Dolhuys complex on the Schotersingel in Haarlem. Left hand building shows keystone from 1602, and right hand building shows older keystone (this is the side view of the front of the complex) from 1564. The Haarlem archives first mentions this site as the Leprooshuis or Sint Jacobskapelle in the early 14th century. At that time it was quite far from the city center and considered a safe quarantine for leprosy victims.
context_page_description: Het Dolhuys is a national museum for psychiatry in Haarlem, 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.
context_section_description: Like many other Dutch cities, Haarlem had a hospice situated outside the city walls for lepers, plague victims, and other sufferers considered by the city council to have infectious diseases. In council archives, it is often referred to as "De Siecken" ("The Sick"), since that was the name of the street it was on (now the Schotersingel). The Dolhuys was situated in the former town of Schoten (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 provinces Holland and Zeeland and grant them a vuilbrief, or document certifying their status as leper. With this paper, the leper was legally allowed to beg. According to tradition, a leper would be cured after begging a certain amount of money. When a vuilbrief expired, the subject could request a new one. This privilege meant a guaranteed form of income for this institution, since it also meant a steady stream of visitors and accompanying traffic.
  It wasn't until the 19th century that the regents of the Dolhuys actively worked on curing the inmates. The purpose until then was just to provide a safe place to stay for inmates who were dangerous to themselves or to society at large. Lepers who were not sick lived in "Akkerzieken", or homesteads in Akendam, an area north of Schoten, where they had rights to health services from the Dolhuys.
  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. With a reduction of lepers, the house was converted to a poorhouse for children in 1653. Though it doubled as a home for poor children, the Dolhuys was sometimes still called "Leproos-huis" and later, "Pest-huis" when an outbreak of plague hit Haarlem in 1664. The painter Jan de Bray lost many members of his family in that outbreak, and they were probably cared for in the Dolhuys, where he won a commission to paint the regents three years later.
  In the painting by Jan de Bray 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.  The regent's meeting room which had handpainted wall decorations by Jan Augustini installed in 1756, has recently been restored.
caption: Rightmost building shows date 1564.
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