This is the first in a series of blogs about Zwartzusters in the Low Countries.

Many cities in Flanders had a Zwartzusterklooster in the late middle ages. Zwartzusters (black sisters) usually took vows of the Rule of St. Augustine then lived in semi-enclosure. I say semi- because they ran hospitals, and therefore had necessary and continuous contact with the world outside the convent. Their habit was usually white with a black veil (more on that topic later). In Leuven the grounds of the Zwartzusterklooster, as well as some of the original buildings, now form a residental college at the Katholiek Universiteit.

The Zwartzusterklooster in Leuven, also called the Nazareth klooster, was founded by Elisabeth Ymbrecht, a Jew from Luik (Liege) who converted to Catholicism. She rented a house in 1438 in Leuven on the site of the current convent. Surrounded and helped by a few other women, she began to take in the sick. As she began to buy the land around her house, her informal house evolved into a hospital. Meanwhile more young women were joining her to care for the sick. In 1462 the bishop of Luik gave her permission to build a chapel on the premises and to adopt monastic vows. Like most other hospital complexes from this period, the sisters opted for the Augustinian Rule. The chapel that they commissioned was finished by 1478, when the altar was dedicated. Elisabeth Ymbrecht died in 1482.

Most of the fifteenth-century origins of the complex have been covered over by later additions. The overall plan with buildings surrounding an open courtyard, as is visible in this photo, probably reflect the original layout of the hospital. The convent continued to function as a hospital through the French Revolution.


The greater part of the complex dates from the seventeenth-century, including the group of buildings along the Zwartzustersstraat, all made of brick. These baroque buildings include the chapel, which dates from 1687-93. The brick façade, articulated with white stones, is crumbling and provides an elevated structure some grasses and other plants that take advantage of the morning light.

The last sisters left the convent in 1969.