View source for Frans Loenenhofje

{{Short description|Hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands}}
{{no inline citations|date=October 2021}}
[[Image:Frans-loenen-hofje-gate-1625.JPG|thumb|The Frans Loenen Hofje was founded in 1607, though the port designed by [[Lieven de Key]] shows the date 1625. The headless lion is the family shield of Frans Loenen.]]
{{Location map many | Netherlands Haarlem
 | label=Lutherse hofje | position=right
      | lat=52.3837 | long=4.6317
 | label3=Frans Loenenhofje
      | pos3=right  
      | lat3=52.3835 | long3=4.6315
 | width=260 | float=right
 | caption=The [[Lutherse hofje]] is in the Witte Heren straat on the north side of the [[Lutherse Kerk (Haarlem)]], and the Frans Loenenhofje is on the southern side of that church.
}}
[[Image:Hals Frans - Zaffius, Jacobus Hendricksz - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|Jacobus Zaffius sponsored an additional 5 rooms.]]
The '''Frans Loenenhofje''' is a [[hofje]] in [[Haarlem]], [[Netherlands]], on the Witte Heren straat.

It was named the "Five room" or ''Vijfkamer'' hofje in 1607 after the five new rooms that were built from the proceeds of the will and testament of Frans Loenen (1543–1605).

Frans Loenen was a Catholic who fled to Haarlem from [[Amsterdam]] in 1578 for their milder disposition toward people of the [[Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands|Old Catholic]] faith. He left all of his goods to the poor in an extraordinary will drawn up 3 days before he died. His friends gave up trying to sort out his legacy, because most of his property was still located in the [[Spanish Netherlands]], then enemy territory, and some of his money was tied up in outstanding bets. For example, he had bet a small fortune of 16,000 guilders that the [[Battle of Sluis (1603)|siege of Sluis]] would not last two years. It was decided that a hofje would be the best option, in case any of the bets paid out, which they did.

The garden of this hofje used to be part of a famed garden from the St Anthony's monastery, which was founded in 1414. The St. Anthony order was later associated with the [[Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuys]] and the monastery was inhabited by [[Norbertine]] monks in 1484. The Norbertines who tended the garden wore white [[scapular]]s. Thus the name of the street; "White gentlemen street". They remained there until 1543, when the monastery lands came under the control of the [[St. Elisabeth Gasthuis, Haarlem|St. Elisabeth Gasthuis]]. Their lands were officially confiscated and secularized in 1581 by the city council after the [[Protestant Reformation]], just as all other Catholic buildings and lands in Haarlem after the [[iconoclasm]].

For some reason the actual moment of transferral of the deeds only took place fifteen years later in 1596, and the Catholic associations with this property was probably the reason it was selected by the executors of the Frans Loenen will.

Two years later, in 1607, the provost [[Jacobus Zaffius]] sponsored an additional 5 rooms, thereafter known as the "[[Provost (religion)|provost]] rooms" of the Frans Loenen Hofje. Jacobus Zaffius had been abbot in the St. Anthony's monastery in [[Heiloo]] from 1578 to 1571, when he became provost of the [[Sint-Bavokerk]]. He witnessed the iconoclasm and 3 years later went to jail for refusal to turn over Catholic property to the city council. William of Orange granted him amnesty, and it was on this occasion that he made his donation to the hofje and in 1611 he had his painting made as a memorial to this fact.

The hofje currently has 10 rooms for women, who must have a minimum age of 60 years and who must have lived in Haarlem for five years or longer.
{{Rijksmonument|19835}}

==External links==
* [http://www.fransloenenhofje.nl description of Frans Loenenhofje]

==References==
* Deugd boven geweld, Een geschiedenis van Haarlem, 1245–1995, edited by Gineke van der Ree-Scholtens, 1995, {{ISBN|90-6550-504-0}}
* ''Haarlems hofjes'', Dr. G. H. Kurtz, Schuyt & Co C.V., Haarlem, 1972, {{ISBN|90-6097-027-6}}
* ''Door gangen en poorten naar de hofjes van Haarlem'', L. Peetorn and L. van der Hoek, Stichting Uitgeverij Barabinsk Leiden, 2001, {{ISBN|90-73983-17-7}}
* Meer dan Steen, De Haarlemse kerken en andere gebedshuizen, vroeger en nu, Haarlem Historical Society, 2007
{{coord|52|23|01|N|4|37|54|E|display=title|source:nlwiki}}

{{Hofjes in Haarlem}}

[[Category:Hofjes]]
[[Category:1607 establishments in Europe]]
[[Category:Rijksmonuments in Haarlem]]
[[Category:17th-century establishments in the Dutch Republic]]