Striding in the past: St. George's hospital for leprosy
The past in the present: The leprosy museum in Bergen
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
- Bilbo
I love a good walk.
Especially in my own city.
I know so many of these streets so well, but at the same time, I am always discovering something new. A new street, a new way home, a new corner, a different view or just a different perspective.
My favourite walks are the ones who take me through the old parts of Bergen. As a historian and former city guide, these are the moments where I can dive back into forgotten knowledge and indulge myself in some fun facts about the area. The truth is I have been missing this part of myself for a long time, and after some encouragement, I decided it was time to find my way back to it.
The easiest way for me would be to combine it with something I already enjoy doing, going on my walks. Stopping by some old spots and try to remember what I know about this place. A Thousand Strides will be that, a place where I can explore and dive deeper into a subject that has been left on the sidelines a bit too long.
I will of course try and keep it historical accurate when I write about historical spots, but my main aim is to rediscover my interest and love for the field - and to rediscover my home towns own history. If you enjoy walks, random fun facts about historical places and history this might be a newsletter for you!
St. George’s
Just a few strides away from the train station, before you reach the harbour, you’ll find St. George’s with its recognisable church tower, stretching up towards the sky and its old crooked wooden buildings in this faint green colour. Bergens oldest hospital for leprosy, can actually be traced back all the way to 1411, when it is first mentioned in source material.1
The hospital was probably built for leprosy patients back then, and placed outside the city centre, but by the main road so it was still accessible. Throughout the 1500s it had a separate ward for patients with leprosy, while the rest of the hospital cared for other patients and aided the city’s poor. During the 1500s leprosy cases had fallen in Norway, but by the mid 1600s the numbers were rising again, and St. George’s patients with leprosy would cover more than half of its capacity.
By the 1800s St. George’s had about 150 patients with leprosy living at the hospital full time. This number combined with the two other hospitals in the city for leprosy, made Bergen the city with the largest concentration of leprosy patients in Europe.
Which is also were some major medical discoveries were made. In 1873 the physician Gerhard Armaeur Hansen discovered the leprosy bacteria who came to represent an international breakthrough in regards on the disease itself, but also for medicine in general. To this day, leprosy is still in some places referred to as the Hansens disease, in remembrance of his medical breakthrough.
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Stepping inside is like stepping back in time. The hospital is well preserved and even though the original buildings burned down in the great city fire of 1702 - that destroyed about 90% of the city centre, St. George’s was quickly rebuilt in the same style and has remained so ever since. The hospital consists of the church, two hospital wings (including kitchen and common rooms and patients rooms), the home of the keeper and a shed.
During its peak, St. George’s had about 150 patients living here full time, but by the end the number was down to 10 patients. In 1946 the last residents passed away, after spending 50 years at the hospital. St. George’s was later reopened in 1970, but this time as a museum for the public2.
The hospital with its crooked buildings, the narrow halls and tiny rooms who were to be shared by two patients can only give us a small idea of how it was. The hospital holds so many heartbreaking stories of patients who, due to their illness were sent away, hidden from family, society and stigmatised - left to die in the outskirts of the city they lived in.
The museum is only open between May and September, which is when you can visit the hospital and either join a guided tour or walk through on your own. I would recommend a guided tour as the guides can give insight on the history of the hospital, leprosy and so much more.
If you walk through the area, you can like I did, just talk a walk around and see the buildings and the herb garden (the garden is behind the buildings - towards the harbour) and take it all in and try to imagine how it look like in the 1400s, then in 1800s and then today. My favourite thing about walking through has been to discover small details, like the doorknobs, a clenched fist holding a stick.
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https://www.bergenbyarkiv.no/bergenbyleksikon/arkiv/1423009
https://bymuseet.no/?lang=en