Flensborg's widow house
At Nørregade 31 in Horsens you can find a house that served as one of the city’s widow houses.
The house was owned by the mayor Andreas Flensburg and his wife Ane Stephansdatter in the last decades of the 18th century. In 1786 they decided to turn the house into a widow house for eight poor local widows. In that connection, the house was rebuilt. It was Anders Kruuse who made the facade with the gate in the middle and Jens Hjernøe who created the beautiful relief above the gate.
On the plate of the relief, which is surrounded by two cornucopias, you can read about the foundation of the widow’s house. The back of the front house and another building in the backyard were built with half-timbering. Each of the apartments were equipped with a dry kitchen. The backyard had a water pump, a woodpile and a toilet? These conditions were luxurious compared to the living conditions of other poor people in the late 18th century.
The widow’s house at Nørregade was not the only one in town. There were also opportunities for shelter for women in the swan house at Fugholm and in the old Horsens Hospital on Hospitalsgade. Poor men could only seek refuge at Horsens Hospital. The widow’s house at Nørregade served as such until 1960. After this, the building became a part of Horsens Museum.