Museum Sint-Janshospitaal (Museum St John’s Hospital)

With 'hospitality' as a central theme, the museum immerses you in the history of care and healing. Indeed, in the past, anyone who needed care or a place to sleep was welcome there. The museum is a warm place with a diverse collection of art and utensils, a selection of contemporary art plus seven works by Hans Memling. The Memling collection belonging to Musea Brugge is the second largest in the world.

Flemish primitive in situ
Hans Memling (circa 1430/40-1494) lived and worked in Bruges and created his most important masterpieces in the city. Four of the seven masterpieces by Memling in the museum were commissioned by the hospital's sisters and brothers:

• the ‘Triptych of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist’. A majestic triptych that portrays the two saints to which the hospital is dedicated. 
• the ‘Relic shrine of Saint Ursula’, a unique combination of architecture, sculpture and painting and unique in Memling’s oeuvre. 
• the ‘Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi’. This refined triptych brings to life the youth of Christ and was commissioned by hospital brother Jan Floreins. 
• the ‘Lamentation of Christ’. A touching triptych which reveals a deep human expression, commissioned by hospital brother Adriaan Reins. 

These four works by Memling are among the Masterpieces from the Government of Flanders and have starred in St John’s Hospital for more than 500 years. Nowhere else in the world will you find so many of his works in their original location. In addition, you can also admire these three paintings by Hans Memling in the Museum St John’s Hospital:

• the ‘Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove’, on which the 23-year-old patron Maarten is portrayed as he prays, beside Mary and infant. 
• the ‘Portrait of a young woman or Sibylla Sambetha’, a serene portrait of a woman from the wealthy bourgeoisie in Bruges.
• the ‘Portrait of a member of the De Rojas family,’. This painting portrays a praying man, who was probably a member of the prominent Spanish Rojas family. The panel was part of a triptych.

Other must sees
Make sure to go up to the attic too. Here, you will see an amazing monumental oak roof truss, one of the oldest in Europe. Plus, you will also discover the Closer to Memling Experience. An interactive, audiovisual experience, bringing you closer to the master painter than ever before.

Right next to the Medieval hospital wards, there is the hospital pharmacy with its authentic 17th-century interior. On the way there, you will walk past ‘The veins of the convent’, a contemporary work by the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone. This poetic work, with a marble water feature and bronze tree against which a sapling is growing, is in gratitude to the nursing sisters at St John’s Hospital.