The Commandery of St Jan is one of the oldest buildings of the city. It is first mentioned in a document dated 1196. It was built as a hospitium, a refuge where pilgrims could spend the night. Built on an idyllic spot on the edge of the city, at a time when the centre of medieval Nijmegen was located at the Waalkade.
Knights Hospitaller
In 1214 the building came into the possession of the Orde der Johannieters (Order of the Knights of St. John). This monastic order was founded during the Crusades and consisted of priests, monks and knights. Only men of the nobility were admitted to the membership. After the Crusades, the Johannieters, or ‘knights hospitaller’ spread throughout Europe, founding monasteries everywhere. In Nijmegen they took over Count Alardus’s hospital. It came under the control of a knight, or ‘commander’. That is how the Commandery van St Jan came by its name.
Reformation
During the conflict between the Protestant Dutch and Roman Catholic Spain in the 16th century, the Johannieters tried to remain neutral. In the Roman Catholic Commandery they even held the very first Protestant service of Nijmegen. The Johannieter Orde pleaded their independent status, having their own state in Malta.
University
After the death of the last commander in 1638, the Protestant municipality seized the Commandery – the last Roman Catholic institution – together with all its property. The building subsequently took on various functions. An academy was established within it, the distant forerunner of the present university. Later the Commandery was converted into a Walloon church for use by the Huguenots, who had fled from France.
WWII
During the bombardment of February 1944, the Commandery was heavily damaged, but restoration was still possible. However, local residents saw it as a source of free building materials and looted it. Thus, the Commandery remained in ruin. In the nineteen-seventies, the building was reconstructed. It now houses several specialist industries, such as a brewery, a coffee-roasting house, a chocolaterie and a restaurant.
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