The Bellegodshuis was built in the period 1270-1274. A foundation was then set up to provide relief for the poor due to a period of crisis in the cloth industry in Ypres, when there was a ban on the export of English wool to Flanders. During that period, Christine of Guînes, daughter of Baldwin III of Guînes and widow of Salomon Belle, had her properties converted for charitable purposes. There was an infirmary and a chapel. The almshouse was one of the most important hospitals in the city during the Middle Ages. Through donations it continued to grow until it covered the entire city block by the end of the 13th century. The well-known surgeon Jan Yperman was associated with the institution in the first decades of the 14th century. The old chapel was completely enclosed by the building complex, but in 1616 a new chapel was built, differently oriented and located on Rijselstraat.
The almshouse remained under the guardianship of the Belle family and their descendants until the end of the ancien régime. In 1796 it fell under the Civil Almshouses that were charged with care for the elderly.
During the First World War, the complex, like the entire city of Ypres, was destroyed. In the 1920s and 1930s it was rebuilt as much as possible to its pre-war condition. In 1925 it came into the hands of the Public Assistance Commission, the predecessor of the Public Center for Social Welfare.
The Bellegodshuis has been protected as a monument since 1940.[1]
Source: Wikipedia