Holy Corner (Ghent Béguinage)
The Belgian city of Ghent has three béguinages: the "Old Saint Elisabeth", known in English as the Holy Corner, the new Saint Elisabeth béguinage in the Ghent suburb of Sint-Amandsberg and Our Lady Ter Hooyen in the Lange Violettenstraat. The Saint Elisabeth béguinage was named after Elisabeth of Hungary also known as Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia.
Location
Holy Corner is a protected urban heritage site. It is now a largely urban neighbourhood in the northeast of Ghent, close to the Rabot (originally a Spanish fortification, now a Ghent neighbourhood as well), between the Burgstraat and the Begijnhoflaan.
Holy Corner can easily be reached by general transport. Since its newest addition is the Russian Orthodox church, it is notable that tram 4, the quickest connection from Ghent railway station, has as its final destination the Ghent neighbourhood of Moscou.
History
In the 13th century, a number of devout, unmarried and lay women, who had been helping the Cistercian sisters with their medical work, were given their own premises by Countess Joanna of Constantinople, daughter to Baldwin IX of Flanders, who also helped with the construction of the Hospital in Lille named after her (L'hospice de la Comtesse Jeanne, built in 1236).