Magdalene asylum
(重定向自Magdalen Hospital)


![Kapelle des Londoner Magdalenenstifts in der Blackfriars Road. Hinter einem Gazeschirm in der Mitte der Galerie saßen die „gefallenen Frauen“ und lauschten der Predigt.[1]](/uploads/202501/25/Microcosm_of_London_Plate_054_-_Magdalen_Chapel0549.jpg)

Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were institutions from the 18th to the late 20th centuries ostensibly to house "fallen women", a term used to imply female sexual promiscuity or work in prostitution. Asylums operated throughout Europe and North America for much of the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, the last one closing in 1996. The institutions were named after the Biblical figure Mary Magdalene, in earlier centuries characterised as a reformed prostitute.