Cloth hall

Acloth hallorlinen hall(German:Gewandhaus;Polish:Sukiennice;French:Halle aux draps;Dutch:Lakenhal) is a historic building located in the centre of the main marketplace of a European town. Cloth halls were built frommedievaltimes into the 18th century.

A cloth hall contained trading stalls for the sale, particularly, of cloth but also of leather, wax, salt, and exotic imports such as silks and spices.

Belgium

Examples of cloth halls inBelgiuminclude theYpres Cloth Halland cloth halls inBruges,Leuven,andTournai.Leuven's Linen-Hall is in an early-Gothic style, with baroque addition, and now serves as theLeuven UniversityHall.

Antoing:the former town hall had been built as a cloth hall in 1565
Bruges:Kontor of Bruges
Brussels,seeDrapery Court of Brussels
Dendermonde:Belfry of Dendermonde[nl]
Diest:Cloth Hall of Diest[nl]
Tournai:Cloth Hall of Tournai[fr;nl]
Geel:former city hall
Ghent:Belfry of Ghent
Halen:on the site of the current town hall
Hasselt:Cloth Hall, since the 18th centuryMeeting House of the Literary Society[nl]
Heestert:Lakenhalle OLV Hemelvaart
Herentals:Belfry of Herentals[nl]
Ypres:Ypres Cloth Hall
Kortrijk:Great Cloth Hall, destroyed in 1944, nowSchouwburgplein.
Langemark:1296–1344, destroyed by Ypres weavers
Leuven:University Hall (Leuven)
Lier, Belgium:the currentTown Hall of Lier[nl].
Maaseik
Mechelen:Town Hall of Mechelen[nl]
Nieuwkerke,demolished in 1844
Oudenaarde:Oudenaarde Town Hall
Sint-Truiden:Belfry of Sint-Truiden[fr;nl]
Tielt:Belfry of Tielt[fr;nl]
Turnhout:old Town Hall of Turnhout on Herentalsstraat, demolished in 1962
Zinnik
Verviers
Zoutleeuw:Cloth Hall of Zoutleeuw[nl]

Britain and Ireland

British examples areDrapers' Hall,London;thePiece Hall,Halifax;andLeeds'White Cloth Hall.

Piece Hall(cloth hall),Halifax, England
Surviving part ofLeeds'3rd White Cloth Hall(opened 1775)

In Ireland, theDublin Linen Hallwas completed in 1728, and laterWhite Linen Hallwas constructed inBelfast.^[1]TheLinen Hall Libraryis located in this area. There were linen halls in other towns such asCastlebar(which includesLinenhall Arts Centre) andClonakilty.

Germany

Examples of GermanGewandhäusercan be found in the towns ofBrunswick,Zwickau,andLeipzig.

The rebuilt, third LeipzigGewandhausis home to theLeipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Gewandhaus(Cloth Hall) inBrunswick,Germany
Gewandhaus(Cloth Hall) inZwickau,Germany
Rebuilt, third LeipzigGewandhausconcert hall (opened 1981)

Netherlands

The former Cloth Hall inLeiden,Netherlands,has, since the 19th century, housed theMuseum De Lakenhal(Municipal Cloth-Hall Museum) of art.

Amsterdam:cloth hallGroenburgwal,nowadays an Anglican church namedChrist Church (Amsterdam)[nl]
Echt, Netherlands
Deventer:Wanthuis, part of theDeventer town hall[nl;de]since the 15th/16th century.^[2]
Dordrecht:later calledHuis Scharlaeken.^[3]Demolished in 1858. The Watersteinstoren used to be part of it for a time.
Leiden:Laecken-Halle, seeMuseum De Lakenhal
Maastricht:Cloth hall at the Market square; linen weavers mainly resided in theBoschstraatkwartier
Middelburg, Zeeland
Nijmegen:Gewandhuis/Lakenhal, Great Market square 22–25; the currentKerkboog[nl]is a remnant of it.^[4]
Sittard:at the Market square, destroyed
Weert.Weerter cloth was also traded in theHalle van Weertin Hoogstraat inBergen op Zoomand stored inDe Stadt van Weertin Reijnderstraat inAntwerp.^[5]

Poland

In Poland, the most famous existing cloth-hall building isKraków'sCloth Hall(Sukiennice), rebuilt in 1555 inRenaissancestyle.^[6] The 14th-century Gothic cloth hall inToruńis preserved as part of the Old Town Market Hall.

Cloth halls formerly also existed inPoznań,at theOld Market Square;and inWrocław,at the site of the street now calledulica Sukiennice(Cloth-Hall Street).

Sukiennice(Cloth Hall), Kraków, Poland
Kraków'sSukiennice(Cloth Hall), c. 1870
Gothic cloth hall in Old Town Market Hall,Toruń,Poland

Notes and references

^Hopkins, Frank (4 September 2008)."The Very Fabric Of Dublin's Past".Irish Independent.Retrieved31 August2021.
^Ter Kuile, E.H., & Koch, A.C.F.(1964).Zuid-Salland.Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij,geraadpleegd van DBNL
^Herwaarden, J., de Boer, D. P., van Kan, F., & Verhoeven, G.(1996).Geschiedenis van Dordrecht tot 1572,pp. 29-30. Gemeentearchief Dordrecht
^"Nijmegen §2.1 Wereldlijke bouwkunst".EncartaEncyclopedieWinkler Prins(in Dutch). Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum. 2002.
^J.F.A. Wassink (2005).Van stad en buitenie.Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 280.ISBN 90-6550-850-3.Retrieved11 April2023.
^The World's Best Squares,PPS website, Making Places, December 2005

[Hopkins-1] Hopkins, Frank (4 September 2008)."The Very Fabric Of Dublin's Past".Irish Independent.Retrieved31 August2021.

[2] Ter Kuile, E.H., & Koch, A.C.F.(1964).Zuid-Salland.Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij,geraadpleegd van DBNL

[3] Herwaarden, J., de Boer, D. P., van Kan, F., & Verhoeven, G.(1996).Geschiedenis van Dordrecht tot 1572,pp. 29-30. Gemeentearchief Dordrecht

[Enc_Nijmegen-4] "Nijmegen §2.1 Wereldlijke bouwkunst".EncartaEncyclopedieWinkler Prins(in Dutch). Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum. 2002.

[5] J.F.A. Wassink (2005).Van stad en buitenie.Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 280.ISBN 90-6550-850-3.Retrieved11 April2023.

[pps-6] The World's Best Squares,PPS website, Making Places, December 2005

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