St. George's Leper Hospital
The medieval St. George's Leper Hospital (Danish: Skt. Jørgen) lay just outside the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.
History
The most feared disease of the Middle Ages was leprosy. The terrible effects of the disease on the body were so catastrophic that those with the disease were most often expelled from human society. As a result, St. George's Hospital was located outside the city. The earliest such foundations was in 1109 which were often dedicated to Saint George (Danish: Sankt Jørgen), the patron saint of knights and protector of the weak and helpless. The first mention of Copenhagen's leper hospital was in 1261 as an existing institution. In 1275, one Olof Blok willed the contents of a house in Copenhagen for the maintenance of the leper hospital.
In 1443, however,
In 1348, the
During the reign of Hans I of Denmark, the hospital became crown property and in 1502 it was given to Peder Andersen, a chancellor of the University of Copenhagen. He received the income from the hospital, and the inmates were forced to beg for their very existence. The situation was remedied in 1508 when he ordered the income from the hospital restored for the use of the "unhappy folk and sick". He also ordered two offering chests to be set up in the chapel which only the superintendent in the presence of one of the lepers could open. The funds were to be used for the benefit of the lepers.
St. George's survived the
In 1609, the Hospital of the Holy Ghost moved to its new location at Vartov and St. George's Hospital, with its buildings, fields, and appurtenances, was sold to Morten Wesling for 80 rigsdalers. In 1621, the old hospital complex was sold to the corporation of Copenhagen City and was entirely demolished. The remaining inmates were moved at the city's expense to the city's pestilence hospital (Danish: Pesthus) at Sortedam Lake.
Sources
- Nielsen, Oluf Nielsen, nd: Kjøbenhavns Middelalderen (in Danish)