Arnhem flourished in the 14th century. Imposing stone mercantile houses with spacious storage vaults rose in the merchants’ quarter. The vaults were usually rented out separately, often to merchants who stored their wares there. Many of the old cellars were rediscovered in the nineteen-nineties.
City castle
St. Petersgasthuis, dating from 1354, is one of the oldest remaining houses in Arnhem. It is a typical city castle, built in the Late Middle Ages. Its towers proclaimed the rising power of the middle classes. Rich citizens imitated the castles of the nobility. The house was built by the city’s Master of Coin, a man of considerable wealth. Around 1400, the building became a ‘hospital and mental home for the poor and sick’, dedicated to Saint Peter -hence the name St. Petersgasthuis. St. Petersgasthuis played a role in the care of the poor and sick of Arnhem from the 15th until far into the 19th century. It reverted to a mercantile house, its original function, in 1849, and currently houses a clothes shop.
Merchants’ quarter
The Rijnstraat formed the connection between the city and the river Rhine. All merchandise entered the city through the Rijnpoort (Rhine Gate) at the head of the street. As a result, this became the merchants’ quarter of Arnhem, stretching from the Rijnstraat to the Korenmarkt. The harbour lay outside the gate, on the site of the present-day approach to the Nelson Mandela Bridge. After WWII, the harbour was filled in with the rubble from the devastated city centre.
Storage vaults
While most medieval homes have been thoroughly renovated, the cellars largely retain their original form. The biggest of these is below the historic St. Petersgasthuis. This led to a unique enterprise: the combining of over thirty historic cellars in the Rijnstraat into an underground complex, which was opened in 2002. The entrance is located in the Oude Oeverstraat.
