OUD SINT-JANSHOSPITAAL

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The hospital was founded in 1118 to accommodate "the impecunious sick of both sexes". It was run by brothers and nuns up to 1634, and by nuns alone thereafter. It still served as a hospital in 1967/8 when I was in Brugge but the hospital closed in 1972 and the complex is now a museum and conference/events centre.

You can enter through a big open car park but it is much nicer to go through the pedestrian entrance, an arch in the wall beside Our Lady's Church. The photo above shows the way in.

And this is looking back out the way we came. Many of the old buildings have been preserved.

This bust of Thomas Montanus (1617-1685) has only recently appeared in the grounds. It is a copy of one in Diksmuide by Jan Tamsin.

Montanus is remembered particularly for his work in documenting the plague that broke out in Brugge in 1666. He was born in Diksmuide where there was a bust of him in the city park. After that was vandalised an entirely new bust was commissioned in 2012 based on old photographs, drawings and descriptions. The local Montanus association in Brugge were pushing for a bust here also though the City Council, who own the site, were reluctant. The association seem to have eventually prevailed and the present bust was finally installed here in 2015.

I don't know what this pair of monks are at, or why they are there at all, given how long they are gone and that there are no statues of any nuns in the grounds.

Perhaps a slight contribution to restoring the gender balance is this respite and reflection area.

It echoes a cloister and contains the stations of the cross, on the wall to the left.

The stations are still in a reasonable state of repair.

Under some, as here, the graves of nuns are recorded. This is Sister Anna Cuvelly who appears to have died in 1833 at 76 years of age, having served in the hospital for 55 years.

Interesting and all as the old buildings are, they are not the reason I came here. I was actually scouting out the site for our 50th anniversary reunion from the College of Europe, which was to take place in the newer building above. This more modern building, formerly housing the hospital, has now been converted into a conference/events centre.

This current exhibition in the grounds, part of the Brugge Triennal, deals with climate change and how, with rising water levels we'll all be living on stilts - those of us who are still around that is.

This worthy sculpture is very à propos the theme of our reunion and the current ethos of the College, the closure of whose academic year I have just watched on live streaming - bonding and enduring friendships across place and time.