Sankt Jørgensgård

Facts

Hospital for lepers

By Inger-Marie Børgesen, Museumsleder, etnolog (22 stories)

The Sankt Jørgensgård institution is set in beautiful scenery facing Svendborg Sound. The building complex consists of a stone church and two white-washed buildings. The church has been dated at between 1250-1300. It replaced a wooden chapel that was built outside Svenborg together with some wooden houses hundreds of years earlier as a Sankt Jørgensgård institution" – a hospital for lepers at that time. The illness spread for some centuries but then died out in the beginning of the 16th century. Most institutions disappeared again but some continued as hospitals that became workhouses for the elderly and sickly. Saint Jørgen's Farm in Svendborg functioned until the 19th century with the owner of Hvidkilde Manor supervising the 15 residents. "

Partly a public place

Selected entry

The living dead

Story written by Inger-Marie Børgesen

Time / Periode 1150 1800

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Lepers suffered from the illness itself and the fear and revulsion of the outside world. Family and society treated them as if they were already dead. They were sentenced to isolation at Sankt Jørgensgård institutions, where volunteers helped to care for them. They were permitted to leave their prison only on special occasions and to earn their keep by begging. All aspects of their lives were strictly regulated and the lepers were to be easily recognisable. If they went begging, they were to attract attention by shaking a rattle and if they needed to talk, they had to face into the wind so their breath and smell did not bother their surroundings.