Museum Haarlem 2.48

Museum Haarlem is a city museum on Groot Heiligland 47, Haarlem, Netherlands, located across the street from the Frans Hals Museum. It shares its front door with the ABC Architectuurcentrum Haarlem, which is located next door. The museum is devoted to presenting and preserving the cultural history of Haarlem and the surrounding region.HistoryIn 1990 the museum was opened for the public in a building that was once part of the St. Elisabeth Gasthuis hospital. Abbreviated to "EG", the hospital was housed there in the former "Minder Broeders" monastery from 1581 until it moved in 1971 to the Boerhaavelaan. Today the hospital has fused with the St. Johannes de Deo hospital and is called the Kennemer Gasthuis. The museum is just one of several local cultural institutions sharing the historical hospital site which covers an entire city block surrounding the old monastery garden later redesigned by Zocher and now called the "Egelantiertuin". The museum entrance situated at Groot Heiligland 47 was previously the polyclinic entrance to the hospital, joining the former Jewish Hospital "Joles" to the St. Elisabeth's Gasthuis. The Joles hospital, which itself had only been established in 1929-1931, was often called mistakenly the "Sint Joles" by townsfolk, and had always been affiliated with the EG, though it is topped with a copper tower with a Jewish star. Since they shared the same medical staff and financial administration, the only real difference between the two hospitals was the food served to patients, since the Jewish community preferred Kosher meals. After being separated administratively from the EG in 1942 by the German occupying forces during WWII, the space was later formally annexed by the EG in the late 40's due to a lack of Jewish patients.