Inhabiting Heterotopia: The Begijnhoven = Habitando la Heterotopía: Los Beguinatos

[EN] The chapter examines the origin and development of Beguine communities in the medieval Low Countries and their spatial materialization in the architectural complexes known as beguinages. It explains how these female communities, characterized by economic and legal autonomy, differed from traditional convents and monasteries and enabled many women to access property and remunerated work. Beguinages are interpreted as ¿cities within cities,¿ due to their progressive relocation inside urban walls and their condition as distinct enclaves within the urban fabric. Drawing on Michel Foucault¿s notion of heterotopia, the text relates beguinages to later Enlightenment institutions such as prisons, hospitals, and asylums, emphasizing their dual nature as spaces of retreat and exclusion. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these urban enclaves demonstrate the possibility of subverting inherited domesticity and provide a critical precedent for rethinking the relationships between gender, domestic space, and urban form.