Donders in the Spotlight

Did you know that the Eye hotel has not always been a hotel? It used to be an Ooglijders guest house where the famous Utrecht professor Franciscus Cornelis Donders was the director.

The hotel has based its appearance on this beautiful piece of history. But who is Donders anyway?

Donders was a conducting physician and specialized mainly in the field of ophthalmology. Donders himself was born in Tilburg where he grew up with his parents and 8 sisters. He made quite a journey until he arrived in Utrecht. He went from boarding school in Duizel to a Latin school in Boxmeer and then, despite the lack of education, ended up at the university of applied sciences. Donders eventually studied in Utrecht and continued his promotion to Leiden where he worked as a health officer for the Dutch army.

He eventually ended up in Utrecht where he was appointed Professor. Because he was so specialized in ophthalmology, he was the most important Medicus in the Netherlands at that time. With this title, he subsequently founded the Ooglijders Gasthuis together with Herman Snellen, which is now the Eye hotel.

To honor this beautiful piece of history of the building, the hotel has based its appearance on ophthalmology. The hotel is full of eyes, glasses and old equipment. In this way, this building preserves its important history.