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History (English) Like many towns in the Middle Ages, Ghent was enclosed by many canals, to protect its inhabitants. Near the gate ("poort" in Dutch) to the town there was a field ("akker" in Dutch): the Poortackere. On this field a complex for beguines was built, which was also called Poortackere by the people of Ghent. In one of the walls of the building there is an 18th century stone that says the beguine house was founded in 1278; BEGGINAGIUM S. AUTBERTI DICTUM poort-acker FUNDATUM An.. 1278 Not long after the foundation a chapel and a churchyard were added. Poortackere mainly housed older and sick beguines, because the two other beguine complexes in Ghent did not have enough room. During the French occupation all convents, churches and beguine complexes were seized by the town councils and so the council of Ghent confiscated Poortackere. In 1863 the site was sold to Count Joseph de Hemptinne, an important Maecenas of the Neo-Gothic Movement. With his permission, a congregation was housed here.

At first there were plans to restore the old buildings, but in the end a new, Neo-Gothic convent was built. Most buildings of Poortackere date from that time. A new chapel, two inside gardens and an orphanage became part of the complex. After World War II the site was an orphanage, but later it became a house for misses and in the seventies a studenthome. In 1998 there were no more than six nuns living in the convent, but the maintenance costs were too high and so the buildings were sold.

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Monasterium PoortAckere - Oude Houtlei 56 - 9000 Gent - Tel +32 9 2692210 Fax +32 9 2692230 - info@monasterium.be

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