Gevel van het ziekenhuisgebvouw in het voormalige heropvoedingsgesticht Veenhuizen.

'Vertrouw op God' (faith in God), on the facade of the former Veenhuizen hospital building.


In the 1820s the Dutch general Johannes van den Bosch started the 'Maatschappij van Weldadigheid'
('Company for Benevolence') in Veenhuizen village, Drenthe province, in the north of The Netherlands.
The company bought 30 kmē of land to found colonies which would house and provide work for the poor
from the large cities in Holland's west, as a 'reformatory for the uncultivated underclass'.
Veenhuizen later evolved into a penal colony whose occupants were (and still are) under lock and key.
The (staff) houses are concentrated around the remaining prison complexes. Some have educational
texts in large sculptured sills on the front. These texts used to correspond with the inhabitant.
The headmasters house said 'knowledge is power' as the pharmacists house said 'bitter and sweet'.
Veenhuizen is on the Unesco World Heritage list.