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
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Ieper_Lakenhal_R02.jpg/220px-Ieper_Lakenhal_R02.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Tournai_Ha1JPG.jpg/220px-Tournai_Ha1JPG.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Antoing%2C_voormalig_stadhuis.jpg/220px-Antoing%2C_voormalig_stadhuis.jpg)
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
- Diest:Cloth Hall of Diest
- Tournai:Cloth Hall of Tournai
- 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
- Heestert:Lakenhalle OLV Hemelvaart
- Herentals:Belfry of Herentals
- 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 .
- Maaseik
- Mechelen:Town Hall of Mechelen
- Nieuwkerke,demolished in 1844
- Oudenaarde:Oudenaarde Town Hall
- Sint-Truiden:Belfry of Sint-Truiden
- Tielt:Belfry of Tielt
- Turnhout:old Town Hall of Turnhout on Herentalsstraat, demolished in 1962
- Zinnik
- Verviers
- Zoutleeuw:Cloth Hall of Zoutleeuw
Britain and Ireland
[edit]British examples areDrapers' Hall,London;thePiece Hall,Halifax;andLeeds'White Cloth Hall.
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Piece Hall(cloth hall),Halifax, England
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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
[edit]Examples of GermanGewandhäusercan be found in the towns ofBrunswick,Zwickau,andLeipzig.
The rebuilt, third LeipzigGewandhausis home to theLeipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
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Gewandhaus(Cloth Hall) inBrunswick,Germany
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Gewandhaus(Cloth Hall) inZwickau,Germany
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Rebuilt, third LeipzigGewandhausconcert hall (opened 1981)
Netherlands
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/ErfgoedLeiden_LEI001015544_Lakenhal_aan_de_Oude_Singel_in_Leiden.jpeg/220px-ErfgoedLeiden_LEI001015544_Lakenhal_aan_de_Oude_Singel_in_Leiden.jpeg)
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)
- Echt, Netherlands
- Deventer:Wanthuis, part of theDeventer town hall 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 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
[edit]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).
Notes and references
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^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.ISBN90-6550-850-3.Retrieved11 April2023.
- ^The World's Best Squares,PPS website, Making Places, December 2005