Jeruzalemkapel, Gouda

The Jeruzalemkapel is a chapel in the Dutch city of Gouda. The chapel is located on Jeruzalemstraat in the city center of Gouda, near the former Weeshuis and the Jewish cemetery.

After the priest and vicar of Gouda's Sint-Janskerk, Gijsbert Raet, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1478 and 1487, he had a twelve-sided chapel built, back in Gouda, around 1500, after the model of the Heilig Grafkerk. It is the best preserved chapel of this type in the Netherlands. The chapel included an altar with a painted triptych, a golden chasuble and a monument to the memory of the Holy Sepulchre.

The chapel was dedicated in 1504. Raet had already made an agreement with the Collation Brothers in 1497 that they would maintain the altar in the chapel and celebrate twelve masses every week. Raet died on May 28, 1511 and was buried in the chapel as he had wished. After his death, the chapel was transferred to the Collation Brothers. In 1572, the Jerusalem Chapel became the property of the city government. From the end of the sixteenth century, the building was used by the chaplains as a meeting room. The chaplains were charged with the care of the poor for the inhabitants of Gouda, who did not belong to the bourgeoisie. Later, the chaplains used the grounds opposite as an orphanage and the Jeruzalemkapel remained in use as an office - a situation that continued until 1812. Around 1860, the Jerusalem Chapel was restored in neo-Gothic style.

Since the twentieth century, the chapel has served as the studio of a glass painter and as the exhibition space of the Burgvliet Art Center, among other things.