Hospital of the Five Wounds, Hildesheim

The Hospital of the Five Wounds is a half-timbered house in the city of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony, Germany.

[1] The name derives from devotion to the holy wounds inflicted on Jesus during the crucifixion, a pious practice traditionally associated with works of mercy and social justice (in reformation England the Pilgrimage of Grace was undertaken by Catholics protesting their loss of charitable institutions and religious freedoms, under a similar patronage).

The address is Godehardsplatz 9–11 which is a large square in front of the Romanesque St. Godehard, but actually it is in a small and rather steep side lane.

The ground floor which was built of rubblestones has a representative baroque portal above which the year of construction (1770) is indicated in Latin in a noteworthy chronogram: CVra BonIfaCII, prIMo, qVo praefVIt Anno Abbas SpeCtatos CoLLoCat HosCe Lares.

The upper floors, which housed the St. Nicolai Hospital, were built in a half-timbered style.