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!