Mortuarium

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction.

MORTUARY built circa 1907-1911 designed by Jos Haché with elements from neo-gothic style. The small building is part of the St-Anna Institute and intended for the laying out of deceased patients near the institute chapel as well as for autopsy for the purposes of scientific research into psychiatric conditions. The small mortuary that contained a laying-out room, a dissection hall and laboratory, is situated as a free-standing structure behind the administrative building, to the east of the church nave. It is characterised among other things by the presence of three entrances and a large window in the rear gable for the admission of light onto the dissection table.

Description.

The mortuary with a cruciform ground plan has one storey beneath a composition of a north-south oriented gabled roof with a gabled roof cutting in on the east side and a hipped roof cutting in on the west side. In the rear gable is a large roof light. The roofs are covered with slate in Maas bond with a row of ridge tiles along the ridge, which is furnished with a frost crest. The eaves gutter along the gables is furnished with rosettes. The building is constructed in brick in Flemish bond finished with a cut joint and furnished with a projecting plinth terminated with a hardstone drip moulding. The gable possesses simple wall anchors and is terminated beneath the eaves gutter with a toothed brick course. The three end gables on the east, north and south sides are executed as pointed gables with shoulders. The gables are furnished with windows set within moulded pointed arch surrounds. The rectangular wooden windows are terminated within by a moulded hardstone lintel. The windows have at the underside a hardstone, steeply sloping drip sill and are filled with leaded glass. The windows occur individually or coupled and furnished with a brick intermediate mullion. Sometimes the terminating pointed arch is still filled with a twin arch. The doors are located in the front gable (east), the northern end gable and the southern end gable and are executed as plank doors with heavy ironwork. The doors are terminated with a lintel in which a centrally worked motif. The end gables are terminated with round ventilation openings.

The original interior arrangement has been preserved and consists of a laying-out room with an adjoining dissection hall, in the northern transept an entrance and a storage place (now public toilet) and in the southern transept an entrance and small laboratory. Of importance are among others a small black corner fireplace mantel in the laboratory, the tiled floors in the passages and rooms, the dissection hall with tiled wall panelling, and the dissection table.

Valuation.

The mortuary is of general, cultural-historical and architectural-historical importance as a functional component of the Sint-Anna Institute, specifically referring to scientific research within psychiatric institutions at the beginning of the twentieth century. The small building is of architectural-historical and typological value because of the applied neo-gothic style which is consistent with the nearby church and because of the characteristic components such as the large roof light and the reasonably completely preserved interior from which the original function can be readily read. The mortuary forms because of the function, location and applied style a coherent whole with the chapel of the institute.