classic art deco interior design
we've shown you many of amsterdam's secrets but in this episode, we're going to show you actual hidden places in the city these places are called hojfes or in english, little courtyards since the middle ages groups of houses were built around a central courtyard for religious women to live together later, the wealthy class built hofjes as charity to house the poor and elderly. today, many of these hofjes still exist and some are exclusively for women or senior citizens
there are roughly 30 left around the city so let's explore the hidden hofjes of amsterdam you'll find most of these hofjes in an area of the city called the jordaan the jordaan is a trendy area with artist studios, popular cafes and vintage stores but there are still plenty of quiet side streets to wander and explore to find these hidden places. at palmgracht number 20 you find the original entrance to the bosschhofje and next to it, the red door is the entrance
to the raepenhofje. we have to be a bit quiet. originally these were two separate hofjes with a wall separating the two after 300 years they took the wall down and replaced it with a hedge now the hedge is gone too so it's basically one big hofje and currently nine female students live here obviously the nine students have a hard time prepping for their exams
outside it's so crowded but in here it's so quaint. now the karthuizershof is the largest hofjes in the jordaan and it was built on a former site of a carthusian monestary in 1650 by daniel stalpaert who by the way also designed the royal palace and the scheepvaart museum now the former residents here were religious women who did not want to become nuns. it's huge
it seems the inhabitants of this hofje really like cats the jordaan is quite an artsy area and sometimes you come across some cool surprises such as this....oven thingy here the next hofje that we're visiting is the claes claesz hofje now supposedly it's hard to find but the entrance to the alley has a white fence above it claes claesz hofje was built in 1616 and what makes it different from other hofjes in the city
is that it consists of three little courtyards we're now at the hofje of the zeven keurvorsten or the seven electors it was founded around 1645 by gun powder producer cornelis pronck what's cool about this hofje is that at the far end there is a small chapel it was founded in 1862 it's just a little further our next hofje is on the prinsengracht
right behind this door we are at the van brienen hofje it was founded in 1804 by baron arnoud jan van brienen rumor has that while being locked away in a strong room the baron prayed that if he was released he would build a hofje for the elderly catholics the baron was released...and he built the hofje this was once the site of a mennonite church now the church later merged with another mennonite church
and they left this hof to the elderly mennonite women now in 1765 the merging was commemorated with a clock and a carving of a sun and noah's ark beneath it it turns out mennonite churches were not allowed to have a street entrance which is why we have this long corridor searching for the secret hofjes is a great way to explore the jordaan which is one of amsterdam's most unique neighborhoods
today we visited about half of the hofjes in the jordaan and there are about 20 in total we will provide links in the description box below to all of them if you enjoyed this video, please give it a like and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel i'm sander oudkerk for amsterdam calling see you next time.