The Willem Arntsz House
Agnietenstraat 2
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Better known among city inhabitants as "the Madhouse" — Willem Arntsz was an important Utrecht citizen in the fifteenth century. He was also called Willem of the Holy Lands because he had made a journey to the Holy Land (Palestine, now Israel). In the East, Arntsz had been introduced to a different way of dealing with the mentally ill, who were mostly avoided and despised in Western Europe. Sometimes people also thought that mental illnesses were caused by demonic possession or witchcraft. "Insane people" were not welcome in hospices, including St. Bartholomew Hospice in Utrecht. Willem therefore left money in his will to establish a guesthouse especially for the mentally ill. The Willem Arntsz House was founded in 1461, a few years after Willem's death.
The Willem Arntsz House consisted of a main building, six cottages and a yard. The madhouses were built so that "raiders and madmen could be restrained." They were primitive cottages with straw on the floor, a crib to sleep in and a poopbox. There was a hatch in the door and a crack in the wall, but otherwise no contact with the outside world. It must have been very cold and dark in there. It certainly was not a pleasant place, but there was a clear need from the city for such a guesthouse, because in 1659 there were already 45 madhouses.
Fortunately, the situation changed in the nineteenth century. The number of patients at the hospice also declined rapidly at that time. Under the influence of the Dutch psychiatrist J.C. Schroeder van der Kolk, the treatment of people who were mentally ill changed. He opposed incarceration and the use of violence and physical punishment when treating psychiatric patients. Among other things, the focus shifted to working outdoors as a form of treatment. In 1905, with the help of the municipality of Utrecht, a piece of land was purchased in the later town of Den Dolder. A farm, pigsties, two doctors' houses, a dwelling for the agricultural supervisor and three double work houses were built. This complex was named Willem Arntsz Farmstead.
During World War II, disabled and mentally ill people were also persecuted by the National Socialists, many were deported and did not return. Jewish residents of the Farmstead were deported, including Utrecht resistance hero Truus van Lier's uncle. The Willem Arntsz Farmstead was taken over by the Nazis in 1942 and became overcrowded, while there was less and less fuel and food available for the residents. Many patients became seriously ill, contracting typhoid fever, pneumonia or tuberculosis, and died. It often took a long time for relatives to know what had happened to their relative, even after the war.
The Farmstead is now no longer a psychiatric hospital and is owned by different owners. After the war, the Willem Arntsz House merged into the Altrecht Group, a mental health care organization in Utrecht. Part of this house is now the Miffy Museum.
