The Poor Clares came to Turnhout in 1875. They had their monastery built on the corner of Otter and Draaiboom Streets, according to designs from 1882 and 1887 by provincial architect Pieter Jozef Taeymans. While the monastery was originally located on the western edge of the city, by the 1960s it was completely surrounded by urban development. Moreover, the buildings had become outdated. The sisters acquired land in the north of Turnhout, in the midst of meadows, and asked the Vanhout & Schellekens firm to design a new monastery without luxury: Our Lady of the Angels.
The design phase proceeded very smoothly. The plans, façades, and cross-sections were drawn in pencil and not inked, as the firm had many projects during that period. The nuns had complete confidence in the architects. When Paul Schellekens explained the plans to the Mother Superior, she thought they were elevations. Most of the nuns were enclosed sisters, who were never allowed to leave the walled grounds and could only see their families behind bars. They were known for making dressed wax Madonna statues and Christmas figures. The workshop building, with an upper floor, is located in the south and is connected to the monastery by a glass corridor so the sisters could ‘go to’ work. The monastery proper is built around a patio, with an eastern wing containing kitchens and dining room, a southern wing with recreation room and novitiate, a western wing with stairwell and 39 cells, and a northern wing with parlours and the porter’s room. In this last wing, contact with the outside world could be made. There are also two smaller patios. To the north of this is the area for the external sisters, a separate small monastery with four cells and a patio. The sales room for the figurines can also be found here. In the west lies the spacious rectangular church, with an area for the faithful and the choir for the sisters. The infirmary on the first floor has a balcony overlooking the church and a terrace with southernand western sun exposure. To make their daily lives as pleasant and varied as possible, the architects created, besides the patios, various gardens: a smaller garden for the external sisters, a vegetable garden near the kitchen, a formal garden in the south, and a small garden with a pond near the cells of the elderly sisters and the abbess.
In keeping with the spirit of the order, the materials and furnishings used at the monastery have been kept very sober. The interior walls are in facing stone and the ceilings in rough-form concrete. The small amount of exterior concrete is painted in the colour of the brick. In the design, the architects managed to afford themselves some freedom, especially with the cells in the wing. The rooms are at four heights, with floor at 0, 300, 460 and 570 cm respectively, around a high hall with concrete platforms and steel stairs. The small bathrooms are located at the end of the corridors. The rear façade reveals that two of them are suspended in the air. This is also the case for a bathroom and two rooms on the top floor, namely those above the sun terrace near the infirmary. Two high windows, with an elevation in the roof and an inclined pane, attract extra light into the hall. There is also a similar construction above the stairs for the external sisters, and above the small workshops. Together with the skylights in the church, the confessional chapel and in the sales room, they provide additional points of light in the interior and extra accents on the exterior. On July 14, 1970, the 35 nuns were transported to their new home in private cars belonging to Turnhout citizens. Today, the building is far too large for the few remaining sisters.
