Downtown Amsterdam contains a secret garden with a circle of townhomes called the Beghinhof, which is an enclosed courtyard dating from the early 14th century.  The ancient, restored wooden house, “Houten Huys”, 34 Begijnhof, dates from about the early 1400s, and is the oldest wooden house in Amsterdam.  It provided modest homes for the Beguines – a group of unmarried religious women who lived together in a close community, doing charity work in the City.     http://www.amsterdam.info/sights/begijnhof/