A cloth hall or linen hall (; ; ; ) is a historic building located in the centre of the main marketplace of a European town. Cloth halls were built from medieval times into the 18th century.
A cloth hall contained trading stalls for the sale, particularly, of cloth but also of leather, wax, salt, and exotic imports such as silks and spices.
Belgium
Examples of cloth halls in
Belgium include the Ypres Cloth Hall and cloth halls in
Bruges,
Leuven, and
Tournai. Leuven's Linen-Hall is in an early-Gothic style, with baroque addition, and now serves as the Leuven University Hall.
Britain and Ireland
British examples are Drapers' Hall,
London; the
Piece Hall, Halifax; and
Leeds' White Cloth Hall.
File:Piece Hall, Halifax (36239750242).jpg|Piece Hall (cloth hall), Halifax, England
File:Third White Cloth Hall, Assembly Street, Leeds (12th April 2014).JPG|Surviving part of Leeds' 3rd White Cloth Hall (opened 1775)
In Ireland, the Dublin Linen Hall was completed in 1728, and later White Linen Hall was constructed in Belfast.
Germany
Examples of German
Gewandhäuser can be found in the towns of
Braunschweig,
Zwickau, and
Leipzig.
The rebuilt, third Leipzig Gewandhaus is home to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
File:Braunschweig Gewandhaus mit Zollhaus (2011).JPG| Gewandhaus (Cloth Hall) in Braunschweig, Germany
File:Zwickau Theatre.jpg| Gewandhaus (Cloth Hall) in Zwickau, Germany
File:Neues Gewandhaus Leipzig 2011.jpg|Rebuilt, third Leipzig Gewandhaus concert hall (opened 1981)
Netherlands
The former Cloth Hall in
Leiden,
Netherlands, has, since the 19th century, housed the Museum De Lakenhal (Municipal Cloth-Hall Museum) of art.
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Amsterdam: cloth hall Groenburgwal, nowadays an Anglican church named
-
Echt, Netherlands
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Deventer: Wanthuis, part of the since the 15th/16th century.
[ (1964). Zuid-Salland. Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij, geraadpleegd van DBNL]
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Dordrecht: later called Huis Scharlaeken.
[ (1996). Geschiedenis van Dordrecht tot 1572, pp. 29-30. Gemeentearchief Dordrecht] Demolished in 1858. The Watersteinstoren used to be part of it for a time.
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Leiden: Laecken-Halle, see Museum De Lakenhal
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Maastricht: Cloth hall at the Market square; linen weavers mainly resided in the Boschstraatkwartier
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Middelburg, Zeeland
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Nijmegen: Gewandhuis/Lakenhal, Great Market square 22–25; the current is a remnant of it.
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Sittard: at the Market square, destroyed
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Weert. Weerter cloth was also traded in the Halle van Weert in Hoogstraat in Bergen op Zoom and stored in De Stadt van Weert in Reijnderstraat in Antwerp.
Poland
In Poland, the most famous existing cloth-hall building is Kraków's Cloth Hall (
Sukiennice), rebuilt in 1555 in Renaissance style.
[ The World's Best Squares, PPS website, Making Places, December 2005]
The 14th-century Gothic cloth hall in Toruń is preserved as part of the Old Town Market Hall.
Cloth halls formerly also existed in Poznań, at the Old Market Square; and in Wrocław, at the site of the street now called ulica Sukiennice (Cloth-Hall Street).
File:Krakow rynek 02.jpg| Sukiennice (Cloth Hall), Kraków, Poland
File:Sukiennice c.1870.jpg|Kraków's Sukiennice (Cloth Hall), c. 1870
File:602979 Toruń wnętrza ratusza 02.JPG|Gothic cloth hall in Old Town Market Hall, Toruń, Poland
Notes and references
