# Meerenberg Asylum July 2011



## Flaxington (Aug 26, 2011)

Meerenberg Asylum was opened in 1849 and was at the time the first asylum built in Holland. It was built in amongst the dunes along the North Sea coast near Haarlem. Meerenberg means lakes and mountain in Dutch. The asylum still has a number of small lakes in its campus grounds.





It served as the “county asylum” for North Holland and Amsterdam, it was renamed the Provincial Hospital or Provinciaal Ziekenhuis Sandtpoort (PZS) in 1918. The hospital was privatised in the 1990s and later closed in 2002. During the German occupation of Holland, several Jews went into hiding as “patients”. The hospital superintendent Dr de Vries refused to hand over details of Jewish patients. On 2 Feb 1943 the Germans sealed off the hospital and searched the wards arresting 15 Jews.
I first visited this hospital in 2009, but somehow never got round to putting a report out. I went back this year to see how things had changed. The building is now a national monument and should be safe – although it is deteriorating as to be expected. The hospital was built as a campus hospital site and still has a country park feel to it with meticulous attention still paid to the lakes and shrubs with the grass still maintained. Various bits have been demolished and refurbished and sold. This report centres on the hoofdgebouw – main building – built on a corridor plan – (correct me if I am wrong). 





In 2009 I drove into the grounds and quite a few heads turned as people saw my English car drive around very slowly - not as much as my head turned when I saw two people in a garage loading human bones into a trailer. The shape of an adult human femur is very distinct; they had a big pile of them. They looked very old and must have been dug up in the asylum grounds.
Now some of the land has been sold off at the front and some houses are being built. The hoofdgebouw looks pretty much the same – although someone had rode the bicycle up onto the first floor. Hope you like the photos…




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/6080623201/




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/6081157916/ 




bedroom 1 by acuphaser, on Flickr




Day room second floor




corridor groundfloor 




corridor PZS 




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/6080626647/




Chapel stained glass reflection 




corridor groundfloor 




flooded corridor




and ivy 




Light

from 2009




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5933948485/ 

three years later...




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/6081166962/

Not exactly a Belfast sink was it?




R.I.P.

the famous hospital bike (fiets van het ziekenhuis) in 2009




Fiets

now on the first floor




corridor met fiets PZS

this was a sad discovery, back in 2009 it was a little difficult to get into the works dept, since then somebody had broken the door in and had thrown a chair on to the glass roof of the staff room - thus I found it heavily water damaged.

2009




http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5930970511/ 

2011




works dept office




beam me up scotty 




PZS floor tiles

Building very close to the hospital site at the front





watching the builders

dutch urbexers love to HDR these toilets 




WCs.2




view of the clock tower 

finally from the third floor (taken from the dot of number 5 in the map at the top).




PZS by acuphaser, on Flickr


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## nelly (Aug 26, 2011)

Nice shots Flax


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## Pincheck (Aug 26, 2011)

nice report mate from my experience of Asylums, sadly what you encountered is of no real surprise and is sad to see But nice report all the same with good pictures


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## audi-adam (Aug 26, 2011)

very nice, its refreshing to see an asylum thats not been completely trashed only mildly trashed


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## King Al (Aug 27, 2011)

Great Report and pics Flax!


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## strokesboy21 (Aug 27, 2011)

very nice pics mate


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## night crawler (Aug 27, 2011)

Compared to the ones in the UK the place is in good condition and free from being Chaved.


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## TeeJF (Aug 27, 2011)

Great report and some super pix. Bit of a contrast to my experience at Cherry Knowles on Thursday! Keep em coming!


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## heeftmeer (Aug 28, 2011)

wonderfull report. Visited it in 2009. Not many changes since than but that will be over soon I think


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## tattooed (Sep 13, 2011)

Excellent post, may have to hop on the ferry and give this place a visit


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## V70 (Sep 13, 2011)

Very nice, looks quite interesting. Always good to see some overseas sites.


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