Hospital+St.+John

St. John Hospital is one of Europe's oldest surviving hospitals, it has an eight hundred-year-old history. Old St. John's Hospital is located in Bruges, Belgium, and was founded in the 11th century. The nuns and monks cared for pilgrims, travelers, and the sick. Initially anyone who needed food or a bed could stop in. The nuns were not actually schooled in medicine, they were there to help cure the soul.

St. John's owns six masterpieces by the artist Hans Memling. In 1479 Hans Memling completed the St. John alter piece which has been commissioned to hang in the hospital church. The most unusual is the Reliquary of St. Ursula, this is a carved wooden Gothic church. Memling's other works in the hospital include, Lamentation, Adoration of the Magi, Portrait of a Young Women, and Virgin and Martin van Nieuwenhove.

Furniture, paintings, sculptures, silverware from the early years are still in there so visitors can get a sense of how the hospital looked back then. The hospital is also recognized as having the oldest and largest framework in all of Europe.

Today the hospital has become a museum. It is located across the from the Church of Our Lady which has a statue by Michelangelo. The herb garden that was used at the hospital is also open for visitors to see.