Sint Vincentius Ziekenhuis
THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL IN BELGIUM
The ‘Sint Vincentius Ziekenhuis’ is an abandoned hospital in Antwerpen. It was built in 1867, other wings were added in 1929 and 1980. It was originally a monastery and was eventually demolished in 2009.
In 1867 the religious group ‘Brothers of Charity’ from Gent bought some ground in Antwerpen and asked permission to built a state-of-the-art modern monastery. Architect François Heliodore Joseph Leclef designed the buildings and fitted it with an ingenious central heating system. Unfortunately, the gas bills and the interest charges were so high, the brothers had to sell the monastery. In 1875, barely five years after opening, it was sold to the ‘Sisters of Charity’ who also took over the old-age and health department of the monastery.
The chapel
During the year 1894 a new organ was installed at the chapel of Hospital Sint Vincentius by organ builder Joseph Deprez from Gent. A new wing was built on the left side of the building around 1929, later the construction of the parallel south wing and a new building on the west side followed. In the 1980s, the right half of the front building was demolished together with the connecting side and rear wings. Luckily, most of both the impressive front building and the chapel remained intact.
New demolition works started in 2008. The old buildings I visited were torn down one year later, only the façade remains and is used as an entrance to a new hospital building. I took these photos during my visited to ‘Sint Vincentius Ziekenhuis’ in 2008. Follow this link for more abandoned hospitals.
