Beguinage Hoogstraten, an important facility in a small town

Originally the area now known as Hoogstraten was a part of Rijkevorsel. It was likely settled from that place.  Hoogstraten is first recorded when in 1212 Henry I Duke of Brabant grants the settlement a freedom charter. The name literally mans Highstreet and reflects the old trade route linking Mechlin and Breda via Lierre along a river dune of the river Mark. The street was widened to accommodate a market place (called Vrijheid or Freedom, which indicates that this place was exempt from feudal laws). Around this Freedom the most important functions aggregated (e.g. Church, Shops and Town Hall). The oldest settlement, incidentally, lay further west at the Heuvelstraat, another higher point.

The historic importance of this town is clear from the presence of the manorial castle on the Mark(XIII), a watermill (XII), a hospital (XIII), a Beguinage (XIV), a Convent of the Order of St Clare (XV), the Church of St Catherine (XVI), Town Hall (XVI), Augustinian Monastery (XVII) and Monastery of the Franciscan Friars Minor (XVII). The land of Hoogstraten -a manorial fief-  became a county before 1530. In 1602 the troubles that would lead to the secession of the northern Netherlands hit the town hard. The town recovered due to the proximity of the border within the Low Countries which was very conducive to trade. In 1740 the count of Hoogstraten was elevated to duke. All feudal rights were dissolved by the French take-over in 1795 and the Low Countries would be modernised in about a decade of foreign rule.

The Beguinage of Hoogstraten has survived during the troubled history of the town. The first mention of the Nieu Begijn-hof (New Beguinage) is in a 1380 charter when John III of Kuik, lord of Hoogstraten grants the beguines full ownership of a homestead against a yearly tributary and the right to erect a chapel and build a cemetery. This charter could be a legalisation of a spontaneous commune of women, or the actual first step in founding a Beguinage. In 1382 the 13 Beguines a given the right to live separately in a so-called convent (a walled enclosure). In 1415 the Beguinage is enlarged. By the year 1432 the Beguinage had become a separate parish.

A raging fire destroys all of the wooden Beguinage in 1506 but the brick chapel is left standing. The Beguinage is rebuilt in stone. In 1533 a new gate is created on the Freedom. Around 1635 the new court is attached; before this area had been an orchard. In 1680 building work starts on the present baroque Beguine Church. Some older alcove chapels still remain in the wall around the Beguinage. The Beguinage was aimed at providing a living environment for poor women of good virtue. As such this Beguinage differs from the more urban types that were aimed at single noble women. The Beguinage of Hoogstraten is of the square type and consists of two connected grass courts with cottages on either side. The Beguinage is completely enclosed by a high brick wall with three gates and a main gate opposite the church on the Freedom, the towns market square.

In 1604 the Beguinage of Hoogstraten is markedly smaller in size with a main gate (P) on the 's Boschstraat (SB) near the former homestead House of Kuijk (H) that formed the basis of this Beguinage. On the edge a Novices House (N), infirmary (I) and Chapel of St. Joseph (K) were located near the former gate on the Achterstraat -literally Backstreet (A) that once ran parallel to the Vrijheid (V) the central market place of this free town. The Leemstraat (L) that connected to the Achterstraat is the old route before the straight new road with freedom charter was built.

After serious neglect in the nineteenth century  several cottages were demolished in 1900 and again in 1935. The remaining Beguinage was restored in 1996 and has UNESCO Heritage status and the highest conservation status possible in Belgium. The Beguinage of Hoogstraten is still a large example of the type. It is still lived in by single women en widows who can rent accommodation from the local council. The beautiful church is still in use especially for weddings and christenings.

The present Beguinage after extensive restoration has a main entrance on the Freedom (1). The old entrance (2) was reopened. At the herat of the Beguinage we find the Beguinage Church (3) with behind it the Oude Erf or Old Court (4). The New Court (5) was only developed on the south side with the so-called peat cottages (7) between the Gate of Mary (6) and the communal barn (8). These cottages take their name from a peat merchant who funded these houses. Two rows of cottages (9) were demolished to make room for a vegetable garden.

Urban nature: more survivalists

Some plants are true survivors, they naturally grow ininhospitable situations, for instance rocky crevasses or windswept costal cliffs. Some of these plants have become quite at home in our urban environment, especially due to the heat island effect (which accommodates the less hardy species and annuals) and the sheer amounts of artificial rocks we have created with our walls, buildings and pavements.

Sedum reflexum also known as Prick-madam (left) grows naturally on dry soils and rock, so a garden wall is ideal. This succulent can live off the occasional rain runoff and stores it in its glaucous fleshy leaves. This tiny Bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia) likes the relative dampness this crevasse between the plinth of a building and the edge of the pavement provides. Thrift (Armeria maritima) is often found near the coast, but also thrives along motorways where winter gritting (the application of a mixture of sand and salt) creates an environment that hampers the growth of most plants. This little plant with pink flowers also grows in great abundance on former industrial wasteland, especially with metal pollution.

Other plants grow where few plants manage to hang on to life. Nestling in the gaps between paving slabs these plants either grow very fast making the most of the heat radiating of the concrete, or store food in their roots to resprout after having been destroyed at ground level.

On the left a plant originally from North America that feels right at home in the urban environment: Disc mayweed (Matricaria discoidea). It is an annual exuding a sweet scent when crushed. Finger grass (Digitaria) is also an annual that now grows worldwide, but originated in subtropical Eurasia. It is well at home in pavements where its seeds germinate earlier than in normal soil. The Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.) is known to most people for its seed heads and its yellow composite flowers. The tiny seeds can grow into plants even in between pavement slabs. The taproot grows over time sustaining the growth above. Normally these plants are seen in meadows and lawns.

Beguinage Breda, the secluded enclave beyond a gate

The Catherinastraat used to be called Katerstraat (literally Tom-cat Street, although the name was originally derived from communal arable land or "kouter"). On this curved street several noble residences dating back centuries can be found. The street is most noted for the "Walloon Church" the former Chapel of St Wendell. Next to this small church a gate gives access to the Beguinage of Breda. A narrow alley along the Gatehouse with immediately on the right the House of the Beguine Mistress.

The Beguine Church, in a typical 19th-century neoclassical style, stands proudly at the centre of the Oude Hof (Old Court). On the left the first and oldest cottages. On the right the second row of cottages built here. Both rows of cottages used to be only a single storey in height and were raised another storey in the eighteenth century.

The small Church of Saint Catharine (1838) is rather austere and also quite unadorned both inside and out. This is probably due to the Calvinist tendencies of the Patrons of this Catholic institution.

On the other side of the Old Court the former Chapel of St Wendell dominates the view. Against the side of this chapel  the Mistress' House and infirmary were built. Behind the infirmary a small courtyard was developed as a secret chapel when Catholicism was officially banned in the Republic of the Seven Provinces. The higher building on the right was the Novice House or Convent. Next to it there used to be a gate into the Valkenberg Gardens that were part of the castle grounds. These gardens were opened to the public as a park in the nineteenth century.

At the back of the row of cottages, just beyond the Beguine Church this small building with a spout gable is now a tiny cottages. It used to be the Kakhuis (literally Shit House) with the communal toilets. This statue of a Beguine can be found next to the Beguine Church.

The Rectory with its large bay windows was built next to the Beguine Church. The nineteenth century cottages of the New Court, built  in sand coloured brick, can be seen beyond the Rectory. This extension of the Beguinage was made beyond the former wall after 43 novices joined the Beguinage after 1825.

This Witch ball on an ornamental stand stands next to the church between the two Courts of the Beguinage. It is placed here so that the devil (or any other evil being) will flee this place as it supposedly can't stands its own reflection. Where the Beguine Church now stands the bleachfield of the Beguinage used to be the centre of activity for the women living here.

A view of the New Court with 9 cottages to house the new beguines. Each cottages housed more than one woman. Now each cottage has a single woman as its occupant. After 1850 a larger shared house was built next to the Rectory to provide even more accommodation.

The pump took centre stage in the Beguinage as the main source of water for the women living here. As they made their living by doing laundry, a plentiful amount of fresh water was needed. Before the expansion of the city defences in 1577 the Beguinage was located next to a moat (much like the Beguinage of Lierre). After this moat was filled-in, bleachfields were made here for the Beguines and two hand pumps were installed. Of these one remains in the herb garden. The herb garden itself was reinstated in 1970 after it had been turned into a rose garden around 1840. It now shows a wide selection of medicinal plants like this Aquilegia or Columbine.

Beguinage Breda, a rare survivor of the type

At the edge of the historic city of Breda, not far from the Park Valkenberg one can still enter an old Beguinage through an ornate gate. The city of Breda grew around a ford just beyond the point where the rivers Mark and Aa join to form the Brede Aa (The Broad Water), hence the name Breda. The navigable river Mark was secured by several castles that exerted tolls by spanning a chain across the water. The castle Breda was the northernmost of these castles. It was near this castle on the ford that a settlement grew that was granted to the Affligem Abbey near Brussels in 1152. The trading settlement grew quickly under the auspices of the abbey that brought large amounts of especially low-lying land into cultivation. The town bought its city charter from the Lord Baron of Schoten (a town near Antwerp) who then also became Baron of Breda in 1252 although the Land of Breda technically remained a manorial fief. By that time the town, located strategically atop a sandy elelvation, had already been surrounded by a paling and a moat for over fifty years!

Within this first defensive structure a Beguinage was founded next to the castle keep for young noblewomen who came to the new city. This arrangement is similar to the position of the Beguinage in Lierre. Henry Lord of Schoten and Breda granted the land for the Beguinage in 1267. In 1403 Breda goes to the House of Nassau-Dillenburg, later Orange-Nassau. In 1525 Henry III Count of Nassau decides to remodel the castle into a renaissance palace. He orders the catholic beguines to move to a new location on the edge of the Valkenberg, a hunting park that previously belonged to the Manor of Valkhof. After the devastating city fire of 1534 the women move to their new accommodation in 1535. This Beguinage of St Catharine starts with 7 cottages on the edge of a walled precinct with an herb garden at its centre and a bleaching field on the north side. A few years later 5 more cottages were built on the other side of the herb garden. The Beguines were given the use of the adjacent St Wendell chapel for their worship. This chapel had been founded in 1440 by Joan of Polanen the wife of the first Lord of Breda in the House of Orange.

The cottages were a single storey and consisted of two separate rooms with a full-height cellar underneath the elevated back room. After 1750 another storey was added to the existing cottages. A separate house was built for the female chaplain behind the chapel of St Wendell. A novice house, a house for the mistress of the gates (there were originally two gates) and an infirmary were added. In 1590 the catholic city of Breda was seized by Maurits of Nassau - a protestant. All catholic institutions were dismantled except for the Beguinage by virtue of the Patronage of the House of Nassau. They had their chapel taken from them, so a hidden chapel was built behind the infirmary.

It would take until the Kingdom of the United Netherlands, which granted equal rights to all Christian faiths, that the Beguinage would show growth. In 1825 43 novices entered the Beguinage and 10 new cottages were built along the edge of the bleachfield in the "second court". In 1836 most of the remaining bleachfield was built over with the erection of the new church and adjoining rectory. The old gate to the Valkenburg Park was bricked-up so only the gate on the Katerstraat (now Catharinastraat or St Catherine Street) remained.

The Beguinage of Breda is of the square type as it is arranged around a central open space shared by the beguines. The addition of the "Tweede Hof" (2H) doesn't change this, as it effectively created two open spaces around which cottages were erected. The first cottages(B1) were built along the edge of the Beguinage towards the Valkenberg Park (Vb). Later a second row (B2) was built on the other side of the herb garden (H) and bleachfield (Bf). The Chapel of St Wendell (W) formed the edge of the site with a Beguine Mistress House (M), an infirmary (I), Novice House (N) and gatehouse (GH) erected around it. On the side of the Valkenberg the first gate (G1) known as Prinsenpoort (Prince's Gate) and on the Katerstraat the Gate of St Catherine (G2). The Beguinage originally ended at the city walls (in orange) but was expanded with the filled in moat after the new city defences had been completed in 1577 (and not 1531 as is often stated which only concerned the defences around the castle).As the Beguinage was expanded in the 19th century  a second court was built with a rectory (R), Beguine Church (BC) and Kostereshuis (K, the house of the sextoness).

In 1990 the last Beguine Cornelia Frijters dies in the Beguinage of Breda. She was interred at the Zuilen Cemetery in Prinsenhage (=The Prince's Hague) among her fellow beguines. This Beguinage is a rare surviving example of a Beguinage in the Netherlands. It has been fully restored and has the highest possible conservation status as Rijksmonument. The Beguinage of Breda is still lived in by single women, who don't have to be catholic. One can enter this lovely place without charge. The gate is open daily from 09:00 until 18:00 h. Keep in mind though the Beguinage isn't a public place, you are merely a guest here!