Nederland - Alkmaar, Wildemanshofje

Wildemanshofje (the almshouses of Wildeman) is one of more than a hundred courtyards with almshouses in the Netherlands. It was named after the founder Gerrit Wildeman (1627-1702). As a shipowner and trader of colonial goods he was one of the wealthiest men in Alkmaar. By the end of his life his wife and two children had died. In his will he stipulated that his inheritance had to be spent on a new provenhuis: a free housing for elderly widows, who also got “money, butter and peat” four times a year.

The start of construction was postponed until spring 1713 and took a year. It was supervised by two 'city carpenters. Wildemanshofje has a high gatehouse at the front with a regent's room on the top floor. Above the entrance a stone statue of a wild man refers to the generous benefactor “Wildeman” (PiP1). The four wings of the complex with a total of 24 houses surround a courtyard garden. There are two old wells where water used to be fetched for laundry. The lime trees in the symmetrically landscaped courtyard were planted in 1758 to protect the houses from the sun.

Nowadays there still live women in the renovated and modernized houses. Unlike in the past, they now have to pay rent.