Caritas psychiatric hospital

Institution for female psychiatric patients established to replace the former St. Joseph's Institution for the Insane in Ghent, demolished for the construction of the Gebroeders Vande Nieldestraat (1905). Important for its pavilions system based on the then new ideas regarding psychiatric hospital care, built according to the example of contemporary Dutch and German model institutions. Acquisition in 1904 by the management of the Sisters of Charity of a 19-hectare site in the Lindenhoek district, a wooded area on the border of Melle and Merelbeke. Construction from 1905-1911 based on designs by architect J. Haché, primarily inspired by Dutch model institutions. Considered as an isolated village in a rural setting removed from other residential centers. The first such realization for Belgium. Detached pavilions enclosed by a hedge. Originally 21 pavilions, distributed with a certain regularity across the domain, mainly with their façades facing the street. About six pavilions have already been demolished and replaced by more functional contemporary new buildings, a trend that the management would continue in the future.

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