Toruń poor-house of St. Laurence on the background of mediaeval European hospital care (in the light of architectonic sources)
Journal Title: Archaeologia Historica Polona - Year 2011, Vol 19, Issue 0
Abstract
Hospital as a building type was born from Christian needs of expressing mercy and help to the poor, disabled and ill and also the will of showing hospitality to wanderers, pilgrims and travelers. Spontaneous actions of those practices from the period of first religious communities in the Middle Ages took more institutional forms in the shape of monastery, bishop (at cathedrals) hospitals, supervised by various types of orders or brotherhoods and finally municipal objects. Necessity of fulfilling various functions influenced mediaeval hospitals’ specializations. One of their functions was serving as a shelter to the poor, travelers and pilgrims and St. Laurence hospital in Toruń is an example of it. Mentioned for the first time in the years 1441–1442, it was created at the site of Benedictine nuns’ monastery, dismantled in 1414, within the biggest Torunian suburbs, compactly urbanized Chełmińskie Przedmieście (suburb) close to Chełmińska Gate. The monastery building’s cellar with exceptional wall articulation, stairs leading to it from the footings, hypocaust and fragments of extension erected in the middle of 14th c with conjectural well have preserved from the original construction destroyed in 19th c. Archaeological exploration carried out in 2005–2006 by the Institute of Archaeology of Nicolas Copernicus University, completed with archive query, enabled to verify earlier statements (from the 80’s of 20th c) concerning location of St. Laurence church from 1428. It was stated that it had been situated at the place of, identified till then as the church of the Holy Cross, which had been erected in the 2nd half of 14th c and burnt down in 1391. The Benedictine order possessed the allotment nearby in which in 1327 the monastery buildings were erected. Probably in the 1st half of 14th c a brick body of St. Laurence church was pulled down together with Benedictine cloister, however, the church must have been rebuilt quickly as in 1428 we find a note about its vestry erecting. The town founded the hospital of St. Laurence before the year 1441.
Authors and Affiliations
Bożena Zimnowoda-Krajewska
Keywords
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