Begijnhof

All it takes is one door for the noise of the city to vanish. The Begijnhof is an enclosed courtyard, ringed by houses, that for centuries was home to the beguines, unmarried or widowed Catholic women who lived in community devoted to prayer and caring for the sick, without permanent vows: they could leave and marry.

1Seven centuries of history

Nobody knows exactly when it was founded. A document from 1346 already mentions a 'beguine house', and the courtyard itself is named in 1389. It was once surrounded by water and entered from the alley called Begijnensteeg; the door on the Spui that you came through dates from the 19th century. The last beguine, Sister Antonia, died in 1971. Today the houses are occupied by women who rent them.

2The wooden house

The jewel of the courtyard is Het Houten Huys, number 34, from around 1528. Its side walls are stone, but the front and back are wood. For a long time it was considered the oldest wooden house in the country, until an older one turned up in 2012 on Warmoesstraat. After several great fires, Amsterdam banned the building of wooden façades, which is why so few remain.

It is one of the very few buildings with a wooden façade still surviving in the centre of Amsterdam.

3What to look out for

• The black wooden house, number 34, with its pointed gable.
• The gable stones set in the wall beside it, rescued from vanished houses.
• The English Church, in the middle of the courtyard, handed over to the Protestants after 1578.