Huis van Alijn

The Huis van Alijn stands out for the row of seventeenth-century gables lining the water, each topped with a distinctive, crow-stepped brick silhouette. This site began as a children’s hospital in the middle ages, operated by the Alijn family to care for orphans and the sick. The inner courtyard retains the quiet, enclosed character of its original cloistered design. During the nineteen seventies, the building shifted its purpose entirely to become a museum dedicated to the everyday lives, chores, and childhood memories of ordinary Flemish people.